Nicholas Berdyaev argued that Russian Nihilism was traceable to Orthodoxy: “if could appear only in a soul which was cast in an Orthodox mold. It was Orthodox asceticism turned inside out, and asceticism without Grace. At the base of Russian Nihilism, when grasped in its purity and depth, lies the Orthodox rejection of the world, its sense of the truth that ‘the whole world lieth in wickedness,’ the acknowledgement of the sinfulness of all riches and luxury, of all creative... Read more
The always insightful Anthony Esolen has a superb piece on the First Things page today defending the controversial theses that Shakespeare was “a profoundly Christian playwright” and that he was a rigorous advocate of male chastity, for Shakespeare “as near to an absolute value as it is possible for a virtue to be.” That second thesis sounds counterintuitive. We’ve all been told about Shakespeare’s bawdy humor, even if we don’t get it. But Esolen makes a remarkably thorough case for... Read more
Arians use the words of Scripture, Athanasius acknowledges, but they use them only as a cloak and disguise to deceive and seduce. They are like the devil their father, who used Scriptural language to tempt Eve and attempted to tempt Jesus by quoting Scripture. What’s the difference between faithful use of Scriptural words and deceitful use of Scriptural words? For Athanasius, the difference lies in the character of the speaker. Arians don’t mean what they say because they don’t speak... Read more
In a chapter on providence and politics in The Providence of God: Deus Habet Consilium , Charles Mathewes contrasts a modern ” ex nihilo ” view of human action with the view that human action is “responsible,” not only in the sense of moral responsibility but also in the sense of being responsive to prior actions upon us. He notes two implications of the latter view: First, that if our first “act” is receptive, it must be “a form of... Read more
There’s a great deal to like in the work of Nicholas of Cusa, but William Cavanaugh ( The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict ) places him at the beginning of an unfortunate genealogy that develops into the modern conception of religion as a generic universal interior impulse, reducible to propositions, that forms a distinct realm from all other areas of life. He quotes Cusa’s comment that “there is, in spite of many varieties... Read more
Mark Lilla makes little effort to disguise his contempt for the Tea Party movement ( New York Review of Books , May 27). His contempt is contemptible, and his charges that the Tea Partiers have “anarchist” tendencies and are animated by “anger” are off-base. A few elements of his analysis, though, are worth reflecting on. He begins by summarizing an article that he wrote for the same magazine in 1998, where he contended that the country is far less divided... Read more
Caitlin Flanagan asks in the June issue of The Atlantic why girls are today looking for “the kind of super-reactionary love stories that would have been perfectly at home during the Eisenhower administration?” Her answer is that teenage behavior is shaped by “the mores and values of the generation (no, the decade) immediately preceding their own.” Teens want to do something new, but are too young and inexperienced “to make anything new – or even to recognize what might be... Read more
Everyone who knows Lord Acton knows his most famous claim, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The context is less well-known. That sentence appears in a letter, written on April 5, 1887, to Mandell Creighton. Acton had written a critical review of Creighton’s history of the Papacy in a journal that Creighton himself edited. Creighton printed the review, but privately objected to Acton’s complaints about white-washing the papacy. That’s where the famous passage comes in: “I cannot... Read more
INTRODUCTION The Spirit is the “Paraclete,” a Greek word often translated as “comforter.” But the Spirit doesn’t just soothe us. When the Comforter comes, He comes to convict (John 16:8-11). The Spirit is the Spirit of discipline. THE TEXT “These things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service . . .... Read more
J. Budziszewski’s The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction is about the best and most accessible defenses of natural law one could hope for. At the micro level, J. Bud’s arguments, rejoinders, and observations are sharp, often witty. (I mean no disrespect with the abbreviation, faintly reminiscent of J. Lo, but if I try Budziszewski throughout this post, I’ll miss it half the time at least, which is more disrespectful.) His dissection of... Read more
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