Tag: Imaginative

Piercing the Dome ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Three proposed ends of liberal education — career, democracy, and a free mind — do not pierce the dome of the bourgeois workaday world. Let us begin anew with a question: “How can liberal education pierce the dome that encloses the bourgeois workaday world?” This essay was originally delivered at Magdalen College on October 25, […]

“Joseph” ~ The Imaginative Conservative

If the stars fell; night’s nameless dreamsOf bliss and blasphemy came true,If skies were green and snow were gold,And you loved me as I love you; O long light hands and curled brown hair,And eyes where sits a naked soul;Dare I even then draw near and burnMy fingers in the aureole? Yes, in the one […]

A Single-Minded Saint ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Let us imitate St. Patrick’s single-minded love for Christ, which was made possible through his humility. By being humble like children, we can hope to one day be great in the kingdom of God, with Patrick and all the saints. Few people want to be described as “narrow-minded.” Narrow-minded people, neglecting key information, can miss […]

The Catholic Literary Revival ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Catholic literature, when we discover it coming into being in the mid-nineteenth century, is a literature of protest against the course being followed by European society. Its writers were not very numerous, nor did the typical Victorian man see any particular significance in their opposition to Liberalism, the anti-intellectual Romantic aesthetic, scientific naturalism, and the […]

Tomie and the Saints ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Tomie DePaola may not have been a saint himself, but he recognized them, venerated the love of God in their lives, and drew them in such a way that we can see that love shining through his friendly folk art icons. Through the Year with Tomie DePaola, text by Catherine Harmon and John Herreid, illustrations […]

An Alzheimer Odyssey Postscript ~ The Imaginative Conservative

August 1, 2021. A date of little import in world affairs. A day of savage sorrow, forlorn failure—and exhilarating liberation—for me. Few days in my life have I ever looked forward to so eagerly. None had I ever dreaded more. My eagerness was and remains unseemly and obscene. My dread, overwhelming and persistent. No more lies, no […]

An Honorable Hero? ~ The Imaginative Conservative

In his last moments, Brutus voiced a sentiment about the ultimate tragedy of the virtuous life in those evil days, in which the good was punished and the evil rewarded. This does not make virtue worthless for the individual; it just may place him on the losing side. [E]veryone knows that some young bucks among […]