Time for a moment of self-promotion (not entirely shameless—-I’m mildly embarrassed). For those of you who haven’t yet read my short piece on the marriage of reductionist neuroscience and post-modern poetry here at Culture11 , there is also a much longer piece at The . . . . Continue Reading »
Peter probably has the right idea—it’s worth some effort kicking off the new blog by trying to hash out what postmodern conservatism means. I’ve been re-reading a lot of Christopher Lasch lately, especially the work following The Cutlure of Narcissism (1979) . Lasch argued for a . . . . Continue Reading »
Genuine diversity depends, of course, on lives formed by different understandings of the self or soul. Our tradition of diversity has been largely of diverse religious communities. Now we talk so much about diversity because we’re anxiously aware that we’re losing it. Diversity has . . . . Continue Reading »
People are basically good, right? It’s a truism drilled into us by any number of self-help books, magazines, talk-show hosts, and pop therapy. When, from time to time, people do terrible things to each other or themselves, we are assured that just the right combination of education, medication, . . . . Continue Reading »
I recently needed to track down a reference in a long out-of-print anthology called Humanism and America: Essays on the Outlook of Modern Civilization , published back in 1930. Having got my citation, I was going to return the book when I caught sight, in the table of contents, of a contribution . . . . Continue Reading »
I shall ignore the shrill personal attacks upon me in Robert Miola’s spleen-venting review of my book , The Quest for Shakespeare , in your August/September issue. I would, however, like to respond to the factual errors and seriously misleading rhetoric with which his review is peppered.In . . . . Continue Reading »
Macbeth is Shakespearean tragedy at its scariest. It opens with a crash of thunder and a flash of lightening, with a hurly-burly of fog and filthy air, with three spellbinding wicked witches¯and it only gets worse from there. Notoriously difficult to produce, Macbeth has been christened . . . . Continue Reading »
The intemperate, even violent tone in recent criticisms of faith is quite striking. Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens: They seem an agitated crew, quick to caricature, quick to denounce, quick to slash away at what they take to be the delusions and conceits of faith. And the phenomenon is not strictly . . . . Continue Reading »
Even if you go around with one or several fingers stuffed into each ear, you will not be able to exclude the words “Hannah Montana” from your field of consciousness, especially now that the number one movie in the United States bears that name. No American citizen is permitted to be . . . . Continue Reading »
We live in a time of both danger and opportunity for the Catholic Church in the United States. The danger is that large numbers of Catholics will, as a result of clergy sex scandals and the large, highly publicized cash awards and settlements following in their train, lose confidence in the . . . . Continue Reading »
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