The Imaginative Conservative
- Website
- theimaginativeconservative.org · all feeds from this site
- Feed URL
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/feed
Read it in your FeedListing reader
Or add to: Feedly Inoreader Raw feed
Latest posts
-
The Tragedy of Despair
My heart breaks for Tolkien's Denethor, whose life ended unnecessarily, as bitterness, anger, and hopelessness in the face of evil consumed him. Let our prayer be that, even as we observe the darkness at the doorstep of Western Civilization, we imaginative conservatives stand at…
-
Two Halves at the Kitchen Table
We must accept the reality that our spouse is God’s gift—all of our spouse. We can’t merely “put up with” our spouse’s splinters in long-suffering frustration. If we take seriously God’s providence in giving us this husband or this wife, their vices are what we’ve needed, and…
-
The Imitation of Socrates
To my mind, there never was a more serious teacher than Socrates. So let us imitate him to the best of our ability, and strive continually to improve our ability. I have written about Socrates as a model for imitating heroes, because he shows us how to use the lives of…
-
Gen X: We Persevere
According to a brand new New York Times/Siena Poll, every age demographic except one has shifted left over the last several years. The one age demographic that has remained solid and unwavering is my own, Gen X, those ages 45-64. In no way am I surprised that my cohort is the…
-
Democracy Is Beautiful: Conservatism as if the People Matter
To rebuild their movement and society, and to rebuild a viable culture, conservatives must embrace the conservative populism championed by two men: filmmaker Frank Capra and scholar Willmoore Kendall. Pursuing this path will be challenging, for populism has become a bogeyman for…
-
A True Ghost Story
While kneeling to receive Communion, my brother James suddenly felt the presence of his recently deceased friend—for whom the Mass was being said—kneeling beside him. Then James asked the priest what he saw.... I was living in England with my younger brother James when we met an…
-
Did St. Thomas Aquinas Believe in Ghosts?
In reflecting on the fate of the departed souls, we might well wonder whether these souls ever leave their abodes and interact with us. What did the Angelic Doctor have to say about this? As Christians, we know by faith that when we die, when our immortal souls are separated…
-
Benedict XVI, “Communio,” & the Communion of Saints
As we recall the legacy of the late Benedict XVI, we would be remiss if we overlooked his theology of the saints as the antidote to the “dictatorship of relativism." One of the central ideas throughout the writings of Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) has been the notion of…
-
“Besieged”: The Saints—the Aristocrats of the Soul
The saints have served as the heroes in Western culture, and have been the impetus for renewal in the Western Tradition. God has called them, and they, by responding to His call, have become the aristocrats of the soul. Christopher Dawson, the brilliant Anglo-Welsh Roman…
-
Horror and Holiness for Halloween
Should Christians spurn the cult of the dead which seems to possess millions of people in the weeks leading up to Halloween? If so, should they also spurn anything creepy on All Hallows Eve? Should they boycott Halloween altogether, keeping their eyes focused on the great feast…
-
Ten Spooky Classical Music Favorites for Halloween
It’s Halloween, and you’re looking for that perfect, spooky Halloween music that’s a little more sophisticated than “The Monster Mash” and “Thriller” and “Werewolves of London.” Look no further, friends. I’ve done my own hopping around to see what others consider to be their Top…
-
The Day God Saved Me Through My Hero
The slow, silent and mostly invisible hand of God working in our lives sometimes punches through the veil to let us know, "I AM always with you." Eddie Murray A man from the Midwest named Joe introduced himself to me the other day and said he had something for me. Since we were…
-
The Best American Ghost Story? William Gilmore Simms’ “Grayling”
William Gilmore Simms When it comes to stories that make your hair stand on end everyone’s mind understandably goes to master of macabre Edgar Allan Poe. But what did Poe himself consider the best ghost story? Of William Gilmore Simms’s short story “Grayling, or Murder Will…
-
Seeing Is Believing
This is the mystery which, in the end, Saint Matthew relates in the pages of his Gospel: Jesus is not a teacher of ethics, or a strange oriental prophet, but the promised Messiah, unrecognisable except to those who had broken together that fragment of the Book of Isaiah and…
-
How Edgar Allan Poe Ensured That Gothic Stories Will Never Die
At the same time that writers were bringing depth of character to the gothic setting in the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe revitalized the genre in mid-century America. Suddenly Tales of Horror had a distinctly American flair and a surprising psychological depth. This nuance…
-
Higher Education in America: It’s Worse Than You Think
The problems of what passes for higher education today are many and deep and entrenched. The time for major reform is at hand. This collection of essays, edited by Kevin Roberts, is an important part of the effort to hurry this process along. Higher Education in America: It’s…
-
A Time for War
It is a trick of the Devil to think that “spiritual combat” means only using the part of us that is spiritual. God made us soul and body, and while the body is what makes us weaker than the Enemy by nature, it is also the precise instrument by which we are meant to overcome [...]
-
The Nobel Prize in Literature Is for the Bizarre
Giving Anne Carson the Nobel Prize in Literature is a tragedy. This is not a celebration of literary excellence but its destruction. Indeed, the world now heaps praise upon her as she deconstructs ancient literature and dismantles the structures that give literary art its…
-
A Guide to Reading Ghost Stories With Russell Kirk
For Russell Kirk, the "ghost tale" may better communicate certain truths when compared to science fiction. His was no Enlightenment mind, Kirk now became aware; it was a Gothic mind, medieval in its temper and structure. —Russell Kirk, The Sword of Imagination As J.R.R. Tolkien…
-
The Politics of Heaven
The key to understanding Thomas More’s generous dedication to the real but limited good he could do on earth is, as Frank Mitjans makes clear, that More’s constant contemplation of God was the source of his boundless care for the souls surrounding him. Thomas More’s Vocation, by…