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 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
Gerald Russello: The Man Who Did It All
“Gerald believed deeply in the power of the conservative imagination, and I believe the essays and reviews in this volume showcase one dedicated man’s imagination at its best, working to preserve the Permanent Things for the next generation and beyond.”
Latest Pieces
Russello Classic: The Age of Addiction
Gerald J. Russello reviews a book on the cultivation of consumer desire and its discontents.
The Fourth Awokening and Its Discontents
“Each of the ‘Great Awokenings’ thus have a common cause: elite overproduction, a situation in which there are more people who feel entitled to elite positions than there are such positions available.”
Dissonance and Faith
“While billed as an accessible and clarifying introductory guide to the ideas that shaped the New Testament, I would not endorse this description of Spencer’s book. It is not a book for beginners, nor an introduction, nor a clarifying guide. It is, rather, a mineshaft—dark, with dim lighting—in which the wary may yet strike treasure.”
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.”
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.”
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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