The West Is Dead. Long Live the West.

The other day I read Robert Capon complaining about a kitchen knife that was as dull as dialectical materialism. Marx got his version of that from Hegel, modified it so as to make the commies responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, thus making the consequences of dialectical materialism anything but dull. Hegel — …

Although the Drummer Boy is Optional

Chesterton says somewhere that the modern world has insisted on exiling the Savior, but has done so from the midst of the story of the Gadarene demoniac. The upshot of this means that our naked public square has been purged of any reference to Jesus, but we are now left with the devils and with …

Delenda Est

I recently received a thoughtful question from a reader that I decided should be best addressed in a separate post. The question was generated by my exchange with Thabiti some months back, and there is no real point in trying to resurrect an old comment thread. So here we are. The question goes like this. …

A Five Gallon Bucket of Lamesauce

In my previous post, I said that the great idol of modernity is the state. One perceptive reader on Facebook suggested that rather we should think of the great idol as being that of the individual self — freedom and liberty for me, me, me. I don’t know how to link to a Facebook thread, …

Trueman, Toilets, and Transformation

Carl Trueman writes with verve and sass, which is of course a good thing, so it is a pity when he whiffs one. Don’t get me wrong — the swing was picture perfect, but the ball somehow still wound up in the catcher’s mitt. The occasion was a jab that D.G. Hart was taking at …

On the Rounded Upper Part

Alan Jacobs asks a question here that he does not answer. That question concerns whether he is a conservative or not. “So is there any sense in which I might plausibly be called a conservative? I don’t really know; I’ll leave that to others to decide.” With such a kind invitation, how could I turn …

The Limitations of Kitten Hugging

Whenever you propose something, as I propose a return to mere Christendom, one of the natural objections people raise is the objection of trajectories — as in, “that’s all very well, but what might this lead to next?” Given this sinfulness of this world, and the genius we have for corrupting everything we touch, this …

Cathedrals of the New Foundation

In the past, it is true, I have occasionally written positive things about generally despised groups. I have done this with the medievals, with the Puritans, and even for some aspects of the Confederacy. Given this propensity of mine, was it not just a matter of time before I would come out to praise some …