Like anyone moving to a new home, my husband and I had certain things we were looking for: proximity to a Biblical church, driving distance … Read More ›
In my previous essay, I laid out Aristotle’s conception of perfect friendship and how it can form the backdrop for a healthy marriage. The essay then turned to exhorting fellow men on why they should care about perfecting themselves before marriage to better live out the sacrament. However, my previous essay was negligent in practical tips. While many other sites and books have offered countless advice on this, I offer some more here. I want to focus on cultivating the kind of soul that is capable of self-gift. Again, to reiterate my earlier point, marriage isn’t an institution that “fixes’ men. Yes, it can temper them and point their desires in the proper direction, but it’s not a switch where one instantly becomes the best version of self. It can only work on what’s already there. What does this look…
Without too much fanfare, Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics remains a classic that ought to be studied over and over, even as the literature on it continues to grow at an alarming rate. This author apologizes for adding to the ever-growing slag-heap. However, examining Aristotle’s understanding of friendship is useful not only for those who wish to live friendship better, but also for a proper understanding of marriage. For this second part, John Paul II’s Theology of the Body serves as the most recent examination of this, albeit with a slight twist. Coupling Aristotle’s examination of friendship with John Paul II’s Theology of the Body can serve as an exhortation for both men and women more broadly, but particularly young men who wish to be married. Aristotle’s examination of virtue and the moral life ends with an examination of friendship, something that seems possible only after…
When I was a child, I remember thinking that being grown-up was a destination or a finish line to cross. Now, after graduating college, getting … Read More ›
In 1977, right between the release of Jaws and E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Steven Spielberg made Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While by no means … Read More ›
First published in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby shares Nick Carraway’s reflections on the summer and fall of 1922 …
In a world of online purchases, a real brick-and-mortar bookstore is a refreshing throwback, especially for those of us who like to inspect a thing … Read More ›
The phrase began in 1935. Politicians and pundits from both sides of the political spectrum, but mostly the left, claim that they are on the “right side of history.” Washington Governor Jay Inslee, conservative writer Ben Shapiro, and former President Barack Obama are just three of many who have belabored the phrase. After studying history for almost sixty years and teaching it for forty-four, this phrase makes me want to scream, “History has no side!” History is simply the factual story of what happened and its cause and effect.
That last line about “Liberalism” in particular deserves some pondering. Indeed, pillorying liberalism—in its more classical sense as per Screwtape—and its socio-cultural conventions have become fashionable for elites on all sides. Entire books have appeared on the subject. In most places, the loudest voices have been pontificating that a more fulsome, energetic politics is needed to revolutionize the thin gruel of the status quo.