A new episode of The Dean Abbott Podcast is now available. Find it here. My guest this time is Irish philosopher and journalist Mark Dooley. Dr. Dooley is the author of a number of books on political, religious and philosophical topics. In this episode, we discuss his book “Moral Matters:A Philosophy of Homecoming”, a fantastic introduction to traditionalist thinking. I continue to struggle with getting iTunes to recognize the show’s RSS feed. I will keep you updated as soon as... Read more
What We Saw Down on the Farm My wife and I took our girls to farm the other day. The owners specialize in maple syrup products, and it’s their busy time of the year. We stood outdoors in the late winter chill learning about how they transport the sap. A spider’s web of plastic tubing weaves between the trees connecting all 5000 on the property. Through it flows the sap that eventually becomes syrup and sugar and other maple-flavored concoctions.... Read more
Spiritual and psychological homelessness is a complex condition. Our alienation is mutli-faceted affecting every area of our lives. We are as distant from the material realities of work, family, neighbors and the land as we are from the spiritual realities of faith. A problem as complicated and pervasive as the homelessness of the modern soul requires a careful and detailed exploration. Irish philosopher and journalist Mark Dooley provides one in his book “Moral Matters: A Philosophy of Homecoming” Home at... Read more
Another episode of The Dean Abbott Podcast is now available. Find it here. My guest for this episode is writer and filmmaker Phil Cooke. We talk about his latest book The Way Back: How Christians Blew Our Credibility and How We Get It Back. His many other books are available here. I continue to struggle with getting iTunes to recognize the show’s RSS feed. I will keep you updated as soon as that problem is resolved. In the meantime, you... Read more
The second episode of “The Dean Abbott Podcast” has been published this morning. In this episode, I talk with lawyer and activist Wesley J. Smith about human exceptionalism and the many threats it faces, including those from both the animal rights and pro-euthanasia movements. You can find his many books here. I am having some trouble getting the show listed in iTunes. If it isn’t there today, it should be soon. Until then, you can listen below or by clicking... Read more
The first episode of “The Dean Abbott Podcast” is now available. In it, I talk with Dr. Patrick J. Deneen about his book “Why Liberalism Failed“. You can stream it below. To download the episode click here and then click the download button. Also, don’t forget that you can receive these posts by email by submitting your address through the form in the right sidebar of this page. UPDATE: I just discovered Spreaker requires a sign in to download the... Read more
Popular culture both reflects and advances the crumbling of our culture at-large. Most pop culture artifacts either push the liberal agenda or are mindless enough to stupify audiences even further were that, at this point, possible. For this reason, television programs that show even a modicum of respect for traditional values and modes of living stand out. Blue Bloods is one of those shows. My wife and I began watching some episodes on Netflix a couple of months ago on the... Read more
There is only so much to spread around. Take attention, for example. In spite of what is commonly thought, attention does not expand infinitely. It does not grow in accordance with the number of things to which we desire to attend. Instead of expanding, our attention fragments. The end result is not that we attend to many things, but that we attend to almost nothing. The same is true with other aspects of our being, especially our capacity for commitment.... Read more
The modern way of living extracts payment for all its wonders in the form of loneliness. According to John Cacioppo, a researcher who studies such things, about half of us report enduring chronic and agonizing loneliness. We know this not only from social science research, but because we feel it. We hear sometimes that technology keeps us more connected than ever, and we know in our guts that’s a lie. We know that technology does as much or more to... Read more
Soon, I will have been a parent a dozen years. In that time, I have seen a fair sampling of children’s programming, movies and television. We are careful about what our kids watch. Most things are off-limits. Both my wife and I are especially suspicious of new material marketed at kids. Not everything is bad. Our girls enjoy the occasional “My Little Pony” episode. “Littlest Pet Shop” is not awful. When our girls were very small, they sometimes liked to... Read more
The Road Home
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