Civilization Without Religion? [First of Kirk's Six Canons]

Townhall.com ^ | July 24th, 1992 | Russell Kirk

[William McKinley]

This lecture is relevant to the first of Kirk's Six Canons of Conservatism

1. "Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience."

[William McKinley]

Ping

[Stop Legal Plunder]

Thanks for a thought-provoking post.

[Stop Legal Plunder]

...One has but to glance at the typical church built nowadays, ugly and shoddy, to discern how architecture no longer is nurtured by the religious imagination.

Indeed. That's why I was encouraged to read about one young country congregation, Christ Church of Moscow, Idaho, building a gothic cathedral. It may take them a few generations, but at least they have a Christian vision for architecture and the future.

[shhrubbery!]

The hard old emperor had his laconic reply ready: "Pay the soldiers. The rest do not matter." There would come a time when the soldiers could not be paid, and then civilization would fall to pieces.

The Dims, especially those of the Carter and Clinton ilk, ought ponder this.

But of course the idea is anathema to them. Deep down --or maybe not so deep down-- they want to see the end of traditional civilization.

So much the better for them to install their own brave new world.

[Law]

It appears that the principal cause of the loss of the idea of the holy is the attitude called "scientism"-- that is, the popular notion that the revelations of natural science, over the past century and a half or two centuries, somehow have proved that men and women are naked apes merely...

...that the ends of existence are production and consumption merely; that happiness is the gratification of sensual impulses; and that concepts of the resurrection of the flesh and the life everlasting are mere exploded superstitions.

Upon these scientistic assumptions, public schooling in America is founded nowadays....

[Bob J]

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[f.Christian]

bttt (( I wouldn't want to disagree with Russell Kirk about anything ))

[Law]

Ping.

[Admin Moderator]

Your tagline... can I ask where you picked it up from? Thanks, AM

[f.Christian]

A common abstract definition of love --- not original !

[LiteKeeper]

archive

[marron]

Beautiful piece. Beautifully written.

[RnMomof7]

Love the screen name:>)

[P.O.E.]

"OUR NATION'S GODLY HERITAGE"

[RnMomof7]

"The job of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.Paul Tillich (1886-1965)

[RnMomof7]

"The job of the preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.Paul Tillich (1886-1965)

[DPB101]

Clarke dismisses medieval historians

Will Woodward and Rebecca Smithers
Friday May 9, 2003
The Guardian

Charles Clarke, the education secretary, has continued his assault on the great subjects of academe by revealing that he regards medieval history as "ornamental" and a waste of public money.

Not long after expressing the view that he didn't think much of classics and regarded the idea of education for its own sake as "a bit dodgy", Mr Clarke, who read maths and economics at King's College, Cambridge, went one further.

"I don't mind there being some medievalists around for ornamental purposes, but there is no reason for the state to pay for them," he said on a visit to University College, Worcester. He only wanted the state to pay for subjects of "clear usefulness", according to today's Times Higher Educational Supplement.

Michael Biddiss, professor of medieval history at Reading University and a former president of the Historical Association, said: "Perhaps Mr Clarke and his spinners at the DfES are hoping to inspire the band of political yahoos who, in making New Labour ever more illiberal, must feel increasingly tempted to parrot Khrushchev's lament that 'historians are dangerous people - capable of upsetting everything'." continued

[Reactionary]

Thanks for posting this. Kirk remains an American treasure.