Tag Archive for books

Have We Become “Sin Eaters”?
or Catholic Answers on The Bomb

June 6, 2016 Moral Action, Security 2 comments

As a group, we’ve discussed more than once the morality of dropping The Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. I don’t know that we’ve ever reached consensus on the topic. In our deliberations, I have tended to speak less and listen more, since most of you are better read in both history and moral theology than I am — but I tend to think that dropping the bomb was a bad idea. Some might call it a “necessary evil,” but my basic understanding of Catholic morality suggests to me that there is no such

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Still Time to Write Good Things On the Sky

August 1, 2015 Intellectual Formation No comments

During a long road trip this past week, I had the opportunity to listen to an audiobook version of The Wise Men Know What Wicked Things Are Written on the Sky, a volume of eleven lectures by Russell Kirk, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and given delivered in the 1980s. The theme of the lectures was whether, on the heels of President Reagan’s election, our country was conceivably at the beginning of an “augustan age” which would see us reclaim the ideals and virtues of our forefathers and our sense of mission in this world. These lectures were a followup to an earlier series

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‘An Immortal Contract’
— and a Challenge?

March 22, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Now a conservative is a person who sees human society as an immortal contract between God and man, and between the generations that are dead, and the generation that is living now, and the generations which are yet to be born. — Russell Kirk, 1957 The quote above is taken from a post entitled “No Conservatism Without a Religious Foundation” on The Imaginative Conservative (TIC) website. The post itself is an excerpt, but stands neatly as its own essay or column, reminding us that, “A society which denies religious truth lacks faith, charity, justice and any sanction for its acts.”

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Drifting to Distraction

February 1, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Moral Action No comments

Kickoff for Super Bowl XLIX is only 90 minutes away. Our family, like many others, will watch the game. Do we have any dog in this fight? Not so much. It’s worth asking, “Why even watch?” It’s a great question, and personally, I have no good answer beyond “family tradition.”  Every year we sit down together; pick a side to pull for; enjoy glutenous, fatty, sugary foods; drink soda and beer; and laugh — or more often cringe — at the the commercials and half-time show. We just do. Artemus suggested that sport may be our last American idol. He may

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Time Again For Tolkien

February 13, 2014 Intellectual Formation No comments

I ran across this article, St. Augustine and J.R.R. Tolkien, a few weeks ago, and due to the length of it, bookmarked it for later. I read it today, and realized something: I have not read Tolkien since my conversion. As a youth, I read the covers off The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and devoured The Silmarillion and as many biographies of Tolkien as I could find — but in those days, mine was not a church-going or well-catechized family. As a result, this article was like a freshening breeze, urging me to open those books again

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Integrity In Sport

June 11, 2013 Intellectual Formation One comment

I’m no cricket fan, but I heard this story on the radio this evening: apparently a player in international competition pretended to have made a catch and moved quickly into celebrating with his teammates. When officials discovered he didn’t have control, he was suspended for two matches (roughly 1/4 of the competition) and fined 100 percent of his earnings. He was expected to admit his failure and act “in the spirit of the game” — and not doing so cost him and his team. By contrast, Stephen Carter opens his book Integrity with this anecdote about the rise of cheating

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