The essay, “Literature between Theology and Religion” grew out of my own first experiences as a graduate student and professor, and speaks to the vexations that inevitably occur to students and scholars who wish to consider the things of God in an age that seems to have an intellectual vocabulary only adequate to speak of the stuff of dust (an eternal, purposeless sort of dust that none of us has actually encountered, of course)
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If you follow college “culture” at all, you’ll find little new or surprising… in the recent discussions of the abusive hazing rituals at Dartmouth, or that the college and its alumni so cheerfully abandon any pretense of caring.
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Sir,
I write this letter to protest the public and wholly unwarranted attack on my character you have made during the course of your campaign, and which has only recently come to my attention. It seems that you have accused me of setting my sights on your country, of aiming to corrupt what you are pleased to call its “great institutions,” and to bring about the downfall of this, as you say, “good, decent, powerful, influential country.” I beg leave to inform you, Sir, that these accusations are without the least basis in fact, and anyone who considers the question fairly and candidly will see that you have slandered my good name (well, my name anyway) in the most disgraceful manner.
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As a homeschooling parent I’m continually frustrated by the difficulty of talking about why we do what we do. Homeschooling is nearly always portrayed as a flight from something: bad influences, secular curriculum, bullying, drugs, violence, or simply a broken…
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Do you love America? If so, how much? Do you wear an American flag on your lapel (and look askance on those who don’t)? Do you drive only American cars? Do you prefer home-style fries to French fries because, well, isn’t it obvious? Do you support American military operations because to do otherwise would undermine the efforts of those brave men and women who keep us free? Do you take every opportunity to express your belief that America is the best country in the history of the world?
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FPR readers are invited to attend the coming Ciceronian Society Conference at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, March 29-31. All attendance to observe the panels is free of charge. Featured speakers include John Medaille, Donald Livingston, Jeff Taylor, James Matthew Wilson, Thaddeus Kozinski, Mark Signorelli, Jerry Salyer, Clark Carlton, Ryan Holston, Luke Philip Plotica, D.J. White, Peter Haworth, and many others.
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In a wonderful article published here at FPR a few weeks ago, Jason Peters argued that a proper education ought to provoke a kind of spiritual or intellectual crisis among its students. If I could choose one author who best challenges a young mind in this way, it would have to be Edmund Burke.
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Classics are called such for a reason. They endure. Quite by accident frequently, for as any condemned intellectual knows, the most marketable idea prevails within the lifetime of the average intellectual, regardless of merit. Marketability does not always coincide with good sense; quite the contrary. Rub against the grain and you will harvest splinters big and small in order to distract from the prevailing poverty of your sanctimonious existence.
Once in a great while, however, a horse surprises and the race arrives at a salubrious conclusion enjoyed by all. Such is the standing of the redoubtable Washington Irving, one of the first pestiferous writers of the young republic to receive wide acclaim in the bosom of our beginnings, for very good reason.
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A blog dedicated to the reclamation and protection of individual rights at monocultural public universities.
"Brainstorm; Review; Lives of the Mind" A blog run by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
First Principles is the online journal of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute where college and university faculty and students as well as those interested in ideas can find original content and archival material on American intellectual conservatism.
Place. Limits. Liberty.
Mid-length articles on the politics, the business, and the philosophy of higher education, and how a traditional liberal arts education is faring in contemporary academia.
