The University Bookman
Reviewing Books that Build Culture
Susan Cooper on the Moral Imagination in Fantasy Fiction
“From stories about brave warriors battling mighty dragons to epic sagas about magic rings and lyrical Arthurian tales set among mist-shrouded mountains, fantasy fiction has always connected with readers at the deepest level. Among the best writers of this genre is Susan Cooper, who writes beautifully poetic stories, like those of Tolkien and Lewis, that we will have with us for generations.”
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.”
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.”
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
“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.”
The Book Gallery
A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!
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