Among the Infidels

by James Hankins

Christians today are effectively living in partibus infidelium—in formerly Christian lands where infidels now press toward a future world we Christians can’t share. Continue Reading »

14 Dec 2022

Notable New Books I Read in 2012, pt. 1

by Carl Scott

The holiday season was too busy for me to compile this sort of list, especially with a move to a new home thrown in, an event that always makes one ambivalent about book ownership anyhow. “Isn’t time to invest in a Kindle?” was the crack my younger economist friend made as we filled . . . . Continue Reading »

19 Jan 2013

Carl’s Rock Songbook #52: Rock Recycle-ment Explained

by Carl Scott

This is the conclusion of the long series of Songbook posts kicked off by my simple observation that many bands championed as representative of new music , such as Crystal Castles, really aren’t . While many themes have been touched upon, overall, Songbook posts #36-51 have been about 1) . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Jun 2012

Carl’s Rock Songbook #50: When the Future’s Over, Turn out the Lights

by Carl Scott

Does anyone not know the story of Icarus? . . . let us imagine that young Icarus manages to actually live through this ordeal: he falls back into the labyrinth . . . bruised but still alive. . . . He has to go back to normal life after having thought himself capable of attaining the sun . . . Today . . . . Continue Reading »

9 Jun 2012

Human Condition v. Human Nature: My Response to Chantal Delsol

by Carl Scott

In the thread below, Chantal Delsol graciously responded to my observation that her more recent book had dropped the occasional references to human nature used in earlier books. While still utilizing the term “natural” to reference to certain biological determinations, she affirmed that . . . . Continue Reading »

2 Feb 2012

Delsol against the News

by Carl Scott

Yesterday, we were treated to the news Peter links to below, on Pat Robertson’s betrayal of basic Christian teaching on marriage in the face of Alzheimer’s. And over at the good ship Ricochet, there was a chilling report on the state of infanticide law in Canada (If I recall correctly, . . . . Continue Reading »

16 Sep 2011

Chantal Delsol, Babel, and Pentecost

by Carl Scott

I concluded the Songbook #6 essay by quoting Chantal Delsol in partial defense of, or rather, in sympathetic re-conceptualization of, the idealistic anti-war impulse. Delsol is a philosophic, essayistic, “anthropological,” Tocquevillian, and Catholic analyst of our present “late . . . . Continue Reading »

11 Jun 2011

Carl’s Rock Songbook #6: Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”

by Carl Scott

In the comments on Songbook #5, I was reminded that Bono said he wrote the central verse of U2’s “New Year’s Day” with Solidarity’s struggle in mind. My reply there lays out the erotic and political elements any full analysis of that song would address, and why the . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Jun 2011

Techno-Politics, Tragedy, and the Rejection of Prudence

by Ivan Kenneally

Here is an excerpt from an article on Chantal Delsol I have forthcoming in Perspectives on Political Science : In the place of “true judgment” or prudence, the defenders of international justice satisfy their hunger for rational certitude and analytical specificity with mere . . . . Continue Reading »

30 Jan 2009