The Last Honest Pagan
Far from Respectable: Dave Hickey and His Art by Daniel Oppenheimer. University of Texas Press, 2021 Hardcover, 152 pages, $24.95. Reviewed by Scott Beauchamp “The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered...
Geopolitics in a Godless Age
Political Theology of International Order by William Bain. Oxford University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 272 pages, $85. Reviewed by John Ehrett Few academic fields today feel more unabashedly secular than international relations. Traditionally, the major division in the...
Jeanne Demessieux: A Great Organist’s Centenary
By Robert James Stove What makes organists tick? Denis Arnold (1926–1986), British biographer of Bach and Monteverdi, thought that he knew. In 1983 he remarked: “Organists have to be neat men: their mistakes do not, like a doctor’s, quietly die, but are all too...
Can Progressivism Be Reversed?
America Transformed: The Rise and Legacy of American Progressivism by Ronald J. Pestritto. Encounter Books, 2021. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by John C. Chalberg If Ronald Pestritto is right, then Barack Obama was wrong. Recall candidate Obama’s now famous (or...
Death and the Catholic Imagination
Thirst: A Novel by A. G. Mojtabai. Slant, 2021. Hardcover, 141 pages, $25. Reviewed by Jeffrey Wald The reality of death, and what happens thereafter, has long captured the human imagination. One thinks of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or Homer’s descriptions of...
A Puzzle-Box Book
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan translated by Yuri Machkasov Amazon Crossing, 2017. Paperback, 732 pages, $15.95. Reviewed by Eve Tushnet “… The House demands a reverent attitude. A sense of mystery. Respect and awe. It can accept you or not, shower you with gifts...
Eric Rohmer, Novelist
By Trevor Cribben Merrill To say that Eric Rohmer is the most literary of directors verges on a commonplace. But that doesn’t make the observation any less true. His romantic comedies tend to feature members of the French upper bourgeoisie having deep conversations...
High School Students Encounter “The Conservative Mind”
By David G. Bonagura, Jr. “I think the greatest lesson that The Conservative Mind taught me was that conservatism, in its essence, is very different from other ‘isms’ (liberalism, communism, socialism, etc.) in that it is not an ideology. Rather, it is a way of...
In Praise of Jesuit Humanism
By Patrick Callahan Today the Piazza d’Aracoeli is a small row of umbrella pines and a bus station tucked below the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. Compared to the imposing white façade of this tomb of the unknown soldier, there is little to capture the imagination of...
A great review of my collection of poetry @ubookman which highlights that "poetry has always been about love—about the heavens and the burning passion of the human heart." Read the review, then read and enjoy the music of poetry and let your heart soar!
https://kirkcenter.org/reviews/following-dantes-footsteps/