When we think of America, we are tempted to suppose that our country was a break with the traditions of the past, and that manners and ceremony were cast aside. Yet, courtesy was nothing strange to George Washington, the “Father of His Country.” At age 16, George Washington copied out these 110 rules for morals … Read more
“Modern history,” Lord Acton once said, “tells how the last four hundred years have modified the medieval conditions of life and thought.” His sweeping generalization describes the modern-day plight of making sense out of the mess that separates us from Christendom. I can think of no better way out of this mess than to have … Read more
Paging through the food section of The Wall Street Journal, I was enchanted by an illustrated article about American chefs who are now offering a world of pasta to discerning customers. The adventure takes people beyond spaghetti, lasagna, macaroni and other familiar pasta dishes and introduces readers to the rich variations that reflect amazing regional … Read more
On every American coin, there is the Latin expression, e pluribus unum, meaning “one out of many.” The motto is a celebration of the variety found in America expressed by different groups, regions, races, and opinions. Of course, not everything can be pluribus in a political entity. There must be some point of unity. By … Read more
If there is an image that describes our postmodern world, it is the Prodigal Son. Everyone has heard of this Gospel parable where the son of a rich man takes his inheritance and goes to the city and squanders it. When he runs out of money and famine comes upon the land, he becomes a … Read more
“There is no God in this book.” Thus reads the provocative first sentence of Jonah Goldberg’s latest release, The Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. This declaration is perhaps an unintended summary of the book about the crisis in the West. From it, … Read more
A review of Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business Leaders Can Pay to Protect Free Markets by Dave Geenens (Atchison, Kans.: Inhance Press, 2013). * * * Modern economics tends to reduce what happens in business to numbers and formulas. The human element is taken out, and all is left dry and lifeless. It … Read more
As the author of the book, Return to Order, I am constantly looking for examples of organic solutions for today’s complicated problems. It is one way I can practically illustrate so many of the ideas found in the book. I look for spontaneous expressions of culture that are often destroyed by today’s mass standardization. I … Read more
The Middle Ages, inappropriately called “Dark Ages,” was one of the times of greatest technological development, artistic and institutional creativity in history. This is the opinion of Prof. João Luís César das Neves, Chair of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Catholic University in Lisbon, Portugal. Christendom, he explained, … Read more
In the book, Return to Order, there is a description of a legal order that came from Christendom. This order was tied to a higher natural law found in God’s law and to which all, rulers and ruled, were subject. This legal order, based on morality, favored order in society and prevented the unleashing of … Read more
