Category: Essay

Between the Deer and the Idea: On Woodland Philosophy

The life of the mind is fundamentally dangerous when divorced from the world. Indeed, intellectuals have a moral duty to seek out ways of encountering reality—the thing out there—if they are to avoid becoming a tremendous nuisance to others, a trait so common among their kind.

The Centennial That Wasn’t—Yet!

While Charles’ Centennial did not feature ritual obeisances by the successors of those who so cruelly wronged him and all whom he loved, one may hope for something different from the quasqui- or sesquicentennials. It may be that young people living today, by taking to heart the lessons he taught by his life and sacrifice, shall live in a world where this injustice is at last put to rest.

Habsburg Happy Hour

Pilgrims came because Blessed Karl of Austria lived those virtues and qualities contemporary society longs to see in its leaders, in Church and State. He was a man of integrity, a ‘whole’ man; his inner and private life was the same as his public life. He believed in the virtue of duty: to be dutiful, even to the point of losing his country, his Empire, his worldly goods and ultimately his life, makes him a man worthy of admiration and imitation.

Rootedness & Refugees

What many globalist idealists cannot accept is that it is in man’s nature to love more strongly according to proximity. There are bonds that run deeply within the human heart and mind and are the center of community and cultures.

Cervantes and Empire

Miguel de Cervantes presents us with the mirrored vices of savagery and civilization. Like Tacitus, he celebrates indigenous prerogative to resist foreign excess, even as he asserts the imperial principle.

Rediscovering Awe: Antoine Brumel’s “Earthquake Mass”

More than 500 years ago Antoine Brumel wrote a 12-part Mass that allows us to experience the uninhibited spirituality of the pre-Reformation world of the early 16th century. Its construction from a tiny motif of Gregorian chant from the Easter Lauds is nothing less than awe-inspiring.

The Nine Worthies and the Present Age

What the nine worthies provided was a thematically unified account, a sweeping narrative, from Homer through the Bible and into Christendom, which western Europeans could use to understand and in some wise enshrine the canon of their history. The question we may venture to ask, in whose answer we might come to understand our era and its place, is whether it is possible to discern modernity’s worthies.

Every Tear has been Wiped Away: The True Meaning of the Cross

That is what the world is desperately yearning for, which is why people still flock to their churches to kneel down and kiss the Cross on Good Friday. Most may not fully understand why they are there, but they know that Christ did not give his life so that we would remain the same. He gave his life so that, having crucified the old self, the burden of bondage would be lifted forever. 

Lesson’s from Spain’s Imperial Decline

Lesson’s from Spain’s Imperial Decline

Seventeenth century Spain is one of history’s more ostentatious and luxuriant contradictions—a gorgeous oxymoron.

November 20, 2020
A Document for Our Age

A Document for Our Age

Preamble to a Constitution for a Confederation of European Nations

September 1, 2020
Protest Movements: The New Iconoclasm

Protest Movements: The New Iconoclasm

The iconoclasm of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in the U.S. has now also reached Belgium, where statues of Leopold

August 27, 2020
Towards a True Europe

Towards a True Europe

Europe is more than just a continent.

July 1, 2020
Spain with a Spine

Spain with a Spine

The politically successful VOX is such a new beast that its full story is yet to be written, particularly in English. Thus, any attempt to understand it is a welcome contribution.

November 4, 2019
Debating the Future of the EU

Debating the Future of the EU

Where is the EU going? And where should it be?

The Seductiveness of Ideology in Politics

The Seductiveness of Ideology in Politics

Not all the ideas that public intellectuals have are valuable. Far from it. For ideas to have value they must be based upon and capable of being tested by experience. Too often, they are not.

May 1, 2012