2 On the Reading of Old Books

C. S. Lewis has a wonderful piece written as an introduction to a translation of Athanasius's "On the Incarnation" that is often referred to as "On the Reading of Old Books".  In it, he argues for the importance of listening to the voices of the past that have made their way to us via the medium of print if we are to have anything approaching a sound perspective on the present.  His point of view needs to be trumpeted again to today's young (and old) adults, for - as I noted in my last post - I think we are living in an era in which the voices of the past are almost drowned out beyond hope of hearing by the cacophany of the voices of...

0 On The Tyranny of Novelty

One of our society's biggest weaknesses today (though it is by no means unique to today) is the almost wholesale rejection of "old ideas" and "tradition" in favor of the novel and "current".    It is as though people of the past have nothing valuable to say to those living today... because of the separation in time, their ideas are, in today's view, irrelevant, and have little or no value in interpreting events or ideas of today.  This kind of short-sighted thinking has grave repercussions as we consider politics, religious practice, education and life in community with others...  and I fear some of these repercussions are...

0 Celebrating Liberty on this President's Day

On this Presidents' Day (it's a pity that what once was two days recognizing two American Presidents for their unique contributions to our nation's history is now watered down - together as a mash-up with all the abysmal presidents we've had - into a single day) it is helpful, I think, to celebrate the ideas of liberty that our founders and this nation once held dear.   To wit, I've included a couple of quotes here from important thinkers in political economy... for your rumination and mine. "Those that cling to the oligarchy's structure are in fact being duped — their sustenance is extracted from those that the oligarchy has bound....

0 Yes, now I mean it... we're back online

After another hiatus... well, I'm on sabbatical from my teaching, so one would have thought this an excellent year to revive the blog. One would, but until now I haven't thought of it...  we're back online (and I mean it this time) :...