On Intellectual Genealogies

¹ Paul begat Augustine;

² Augustine begat Thomas,

³ Bonaventure, Bernard, Anselm, Boethius,

⁴ And Scotus, who prospered before his brothers.

⁵ Forsooth the son of Scotus was Ockham.

⁶ And the sons of Ockham were Luther and Calvin.

⁷ And their sons were Division and Strife,

⁸ Hobbes, Locke, Shaftesbury,

⁹ Hume and Smith and Madison.

¹⁰ All of whom begat Modernity.

¹¹ And Modernity begat those

¹² Who trace intellectual genealogies no less tediously

¹³ Than did Israelites those of blood. 

Matthew Schmitz is deputy editor of First Things.