Welcome Home to the Russell Kirk Center

Strengthening America’s Tradition of Order, Justice & Freedom

The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal aims to recover, conserve, and enliven those enduring norms and principles that Russell Kirk (1918–1994) called the Permanent Things. Explore the Center’s programs, publications, and fellowships and join with us to continue Kirk’s work to renew our culture and redeem our time.

Kirk Center Events and Fall Campaigns

Join the University Bookman on 11.13 for The Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture at Fordham University Law School, NYC

Join the Kirk Center, The Chesterton Academy, and Professor Joseph Stuart for a conversation on “The Medium of Culture in the Thought of Christopher Dawson” as part of our Christianity and Culture Lecture Series – 11/21 | Troy, MI

Celebrate with us the awarding of the inaugural Richard D. McLellan Prizes for Freedom of Speech and Expression on December 5, 2024. – Grand Rapids, MI

At the Kirk Center

Highlights

Video recording of “Adapting The Conservative Mind for the Current Generation” panel discussion in Washington, D.C.

Events

The Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture – 11/13 | Fordham University Law School, NYC

Christianity and Culture Lecture Series – 11/21 | Troy, MI

The Inaugural McLellan Prizes Gala – 12/5 | Amway Grand Hotel, Grand Rapids, MI

On Campus

Explore Kirk On Campus

Russell Kirk understood his work was to convey to America’s rising generations an understanding of the process by which a healthy culture is transmitted from age to age.

We’re continuing this important work through Kirk on Campus as we host conversations about the permanent things on campuses across Michigan. We hope you’ll join us at an event, and help us prepare tomorrow’s leaders with an appreciation of the richness of the conservative intellectual tradition.

From the University Bookman

Prudence in the Political Philosophy of George Washington

Prudence in the Political Philosophy of George Washington

“What is apparent from reading Washington’s private letters and public documents is that his political ideas were formed from experience and sober assumptions about the possibilities of politics. He was repeatedly reminded by his experience in political affairs of the limits and challenges of politics.”

Latest Pieces

Hope in the Past, Hope in the Future

Hope in the Past, Hope in the Future

“Stephen Presley proposes a model of cultural engagement that looks to the earliest centuries of the Church, its fledgling period before the so-called ‘Constantinian shift.’ Given the ongoing dismantling of the structures of Christendom, the earliest period of the Church offers an ever more fitting parallel to ours, one in which religious devotion is regarded not merely as irrelevant but increasingly as a threat to social order.”

The Sacredness of Life: An Unbought Grace

The Sacredness of Life: An Unbought Grace

“Two new books by former abortion providers chronicle how far this noble profession has fallen from grace, as it has been corrupted by the avarice and dull materialism of our age. They also show how the nobility of the physician can be reclaimed by returning to first principles and recognizing the sacredness of life…”

The Social Gospel for Our Times

The Social Gospel for Our Times

“Newson’s privileging of our temporal horizontal relationships with one another over our spiritual vertical relationship with God… has the tendency to reduce all human relationships to material ones rooted in power.”

Political Exodus in America

Political Exodus in America

“…we have in American Refugees a quite worthwhile and entertaining discussion of the experience of one refugee’s relocation from the most liberal of states to one of the most conservative, though conservative in ways that the author did not entirely anticipate.”

Can the United States Have a Good History?

Can the United States Have a Good History?

“Midwesterners believed in Christianity, optimism, tolerance, local involvement, equality, and embracing hard work, including physical work, while avoiding luxury. They lived out their values by extensive reading, attending public lectures, and founding colleges and primary schools that taught character.”

About the Bookman

For six decades, the University Bookman, founded by Russell Kirk, has identified and discussed those books that diagnose the modern age and support the renewal of culture and the common good. Currently published online, the Bookman continues its mission of examining our times in light of the Permanent Things that make us human.

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Welcome home to the Russell Kirk Center