Dante’s three-part epic poem the Divine Comedy, or Commedia, is one of the most influential and dense works of poetic literature in the Western tradition. Building off Homer and Virgil, and influencing the likes of Chaucer, Milton, Blake, and Tennyson, as well as bringing to popular consciousness and form the modern Italian language, Dante’s epic delves into … Continue reading Dante’s Inferno: Understanding Hell
religion
Science Fiction Fears, Fantasies, and Symbolism
Deep in the wellspring of science fiction is the ongoing struggle between mechanical monsters and holistic heroes. From bleak and dour tales of extermination and human destruction, to optimistic but nevertheless struggling and pathological battles to save life, science fiction has been battling with our modern monsters from the id boiling up inside of us … Continue reading Science Fiction Fears, Fantasies, and Symbolism
Marx’s “On the Jewish Question”
Karl Marx’s essay “On the Jewish Question,” at the face of it, seems like a typical anti-Semitic piece of writing where Marx decried the god of the Jews as the idol of mammon. However, the essay is of political importance as it details several noticeable things about Marx’s political thought. First is his assertion that … Continue reading Marx’s “On the Jewish Question”
Literary Tales Ep. 3: Greek Theogony and Theodicy
In this episode of Literary Tales, we examine the dialectical development of Greek theogony and theodicy from Hesiod and Homer down through Pseudo-Apollodorus with concluding remarks on this tradition's supersession by Virgil. In starting from Hesiod's Theogony and exploring the role of the gods, their birth and divine decrees, through Homer and the Bibliotheca, I … Continue reading Literary Tales Ep. 3: Greek Theogony and Theodicy
God, Humanism, and the Wilderness
In this essay of mine, published at Front Porch Republic (where I occasionally write), I reflect on the role of the Wilderness in inculcating a spirit of humanism, humbleness, and fruitio Dei and the Wilderness' relationship to proper philosophical conservatism (spiritualism, naturalism, and communitarianism). What makes the Wilderness a conservative value is what it represents … Continue reading God, Humanism, and the Wilderness
Aquinas on Free Will, Sin, and Ethics
Does freedom entail responsibility, punishment, and reward? What is the role of compulsion, will, and choice in human action? St. Thomas Aquinas vigorously defended the reality of free will, not simply because he felt that it was divinely revealed—“He himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel” (Sirach … Continue reading Aquinas on Free Will, Sin, and Ethics
Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy (4/5): The Utility of Religion
Machiavelli was not a religious believer but believed in the social utility of religion. The question of God, salvation, and the immortality of the soul did not matter to him. What mattered to him was the reality of religion in life and how religion is useful for nations and why a nation’s vitality is tied … Continue reading Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy (4/5): The Utility of Religion
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, VII: Islamism
In concluding our series in examining fascism, its roots, its concrete manifestations, and its legacies, we have noted what is fascism and what is not fascism. The common threads of fascist thought include: the synthesis of the people with the state for militaristic and warring ends (since conflict defines life through and through), that fascism’s … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, VII: Islamism
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, IV: Nazism
Of all the fascist movements, German fascism (or “National Socialism”) is probably the most famous and least understood. Fascism in Germany was the epicenter of the brief life of fascism, produced a number of intellectuals – serious and forgotten – from which we are able to derive a lineage of fascist philosophy. While antecedent roots … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, IV: Nazism
Catholicism and the Gothic Psyche, (3/3): The Aesthetics of Horror and the Splendor of God
In this final exposition of Catholicism and the Gothic, we shall turn to the obvious in Gothic aesthetics and the quintessential characteristic of the traditional post-Carolingian aesthetic of Catholicism: The aesthetic of horror. “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom is an integral aspect … Continue reading Catholicism and the Gothic Psyche, (3/3): The Aesthetics of Horror and the Splendor of God
