Good stuff from Rod Dreher: Jenner’s heroism, according to the film, consists in his dramatic refusal of Nature — of imposing his own will and desires on nature so profoundly that he repudiates his own nature as a male. Jenner retains his male genitalia, and, of course, maleness in his genes. In other words, everything Continue reading

Perhaps recognizing how its reasoning may be used, the majority attempts, toward the end of its opinion, to reassure those who oppose same-sex marriage that their rights of conscience will be protected. We will soon see whether this proves to be true. I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to Continue reading

“Let me embellish this conception of writing as textual intervention with a note on the Grammarian’s Mythology, which is full of rich and contrary themes. One theme is that the letters of the alphabet contain the universal range of words, and these in turn harbor or conceal all that can be said about all that Continue reading

To judge kata ton orthon logon is indeed to judge of more or less and Aristotle tries to use the notion of a mean between the more and the less to give a general characterization of the virtues: courage lies between rashness and timidity, justice between doing injustice and suffering injustice, liberality between prodigality and meanness. For Continue reading

Every religious faith by nature requires that its adherents act as people of faith in public. And that means that charities, educational institutions, hospitals, retirement homes, and a host of other institutions connected with particular religions must run on religious principles. And this goes against the secularist prejudice that all jobs are merely matters of Continue reading

If we think of this task of rebuilding local economies as one large task that must be done in a hurry, then we will again be overwhelmed and will want the government to do it. If, on the other hand, we define the task as beginning the reformation of our private or household economies, then Continue reading

At the end of the road there will be a sense of homecoming, although the journey has been from A to B. ‘We shall not cease from exploration,’ wrote T. S. Eliot, ‘and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ That’s Continue reading

RSS is a good tool. It gives you a simple way to shape and filter the web’s content to suit your own needs. It lends you its power when you need it without requiring any broader entanglement. Its developers, to their credit, made its simplicity central. They were acting as tool-makers, which is how software Continue reading

We would take turns reading passages aloud, and words literally rose up in the air and descended upon us like a fine mist, touching all five senses. There was such a teasing, playful quality to their words, such joy in the power of language to delight and astonish. I kept wondering: when did we lose Continue reading

I am sure we ought to love God in our lives and in all the blessings he sends us. We should trust him in our lives, so that when our time comes, but not before, we may go to him in love and trust and joy. But, speaking frankly, to long for the transcendent when Continue reading

I am offering, rather, a historical challenge to other explanations and to the worldviews within which they gain their meaning. Precisely because at this point we are faced with worldview-level issues, there is no neutral ground, no island in the middle of the epistemological ocean as yet uncolonized by any of the warring continents. Historical Continue reading

Symbols themselves have lost much of their power to reverberate in the mind and feeling since this power depends on the existence e of a coherent world. Without such a world symbols tend to become indistinguishable from signs. Gas stations, motels, and eateries along the highway have their special signs which are intended to suggest Continue reading

In this local tale of conflated identity, there is a cautionary lesson for the rest of us. During this unceasing War on Terror in which secular nationalists are readily swapped for political Islamists, the American public has demonstrated little appetite for informational nuance. And while there is reason to hope that we might finally be Continue reading

There’s nothing very mysterious about this—it’s just what it feels like to be home, to experience a sense of light or of smell that is inexplicably “right.” I sometimes imagine that it is also the experience that inspires the homing pigeon to its incredible accomplishments. The scientist, of course, is only permitted to ask the Continue reading

The notion that somebody literally made the world—that is what is known as artificialism. It is the child’s way of thinking: the table is made, so somebody made the table. The world is here, so somebody must have made it. There is another point of view involving emanation and precipitation without personification. A sound precipitates Continue reading

“If production could be organized on a basis of cooperative fraternity; if distribution could at least approximately be determined by justice; if all men could be conscious that their labor contributed to the welfare of all and that their personal well-being was dependent on the of the Commonwealth; if predatory business and parasitic wealth ceased Continue reading

“If Calvinism is true, it means that God creates disposable people, people without any hope. It means that God not only allows, but sovereignly ordains, every war and every abortion and every rape of a child. It means that God does not love the world; he hates it. If Calvinism is true, it means that Continue reading

“Has the universe gone dark and silent on us? Pascal had that idea. He said, “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrified me.” Why should it? Silence is frightening if it comes where there ought to be noise—silence in the nursery, in the dining hall, in the woods when the birds ought to be Continue reading