Bl. Franz Jagerstatter

Crisis: The Courageous Witness of Bl. Franz Jagerstatter by Regis Martin

Thaddeus Kozinski on Liberal Education

The Uselessness of Liberal Education: An Apology by Thaddeus Kozinski

Related:
Surprising Thoughts on Female Education from the Middle Ages by Angelina Stanford
The Education of Princess Mary Tudor
How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

Go to Pieper

How Reading Josef Pieper Can Help You Stay Sane by Robert M. Woods

I don't think Martin Mosebach is considered to be a Thomist. Are there any outstanding German Thomists still? I don't have any familiarity with current intellectual trends in Germany, though I know who some of the big names are in philosophy and political theory. I don't think the secularization of Germany can be blamed on the economic transformation of West Germany; things have not been good there for quite some time. Germany might make for an interesting contrast with the United States, with respect to federalism and social and political trends. What is the typical OF Mass in Germany like?

A translation of an interview with Martin Mosebach regarding the Roman rite can be found here.

Maundy Thursday

Tenebrae at Norcia today. (mp3)

From the March issue of Adoremus:
Bene et Firmiter -- Well and Permanently: A Short History of Reservation of the Eucharist by Father Cassian Folsom, OSB
Summa and Sacrament: Josef Pieper on the Thomistic Principles of Liturgical Reform by Lance Byron Richey

Pope Francis presides over Chrism Mass with 1600 priests at St. Peter's Basilica


His homily.

Leisure, Philosophy, and Liberal Education in Josef Pieper’s Thought by Lee Trepanier

Josef Pieper is best known in this country for his work, Leisure as the Basis of Culture, and its companion essay, The Philosophical Act, published as one book in 1952. In this book, Pieper’s argument is seemingly straight-forward: culture depends upon leisure, and leisure in turn depends upon the cult of divine worship. For Pieper, the cult is the ritual of public sacrifice that acts as the primary source of our independence and freedom, while culture involves natural goods of the world that belong to us but are beyond our immediate needs and wants. Leisure, as the basis of culture, therefore is our fundamental relationship to reality as a type of “philosophical act” where we learn to see how certain aspects of reality demand a celebration of them in divine worship. For Pieper, the highest relationship we can have with reality is one that is free of practical considerations, a philosophical theoria, and that can only be preserved within the sphere of leisure. Although his argument appears to be only about leisure, Pieper is actually exploring the nature of philosophy, specifically Christian philosophy, and its role in the education of souls.

Items of Interest, 31 March 2012

Srdja Trifkovic, Sarkozy the Demagogue

Patrick Buchanan, It's All About Race Now

GARETH PORTER, Israel Shields Public from Risks of War with Iran

Classical Greek Philosophy and American Democratic Thought


Solzhenitsyn, Russell Kirk, and the Moral Imagination by Edward E. Ericson, Jr.
How Reading Josef Pieper Can Help You Stay Sane by Robert M. Woods
The Meaning of Liberty During the American Revolution
by Bradley J. Birzer

Jack Donovan:
interview

There are a lot of ways I could define that group. In an ideological sense, I want to live around people who have the same ideas about how the world should be, because that means we are all working in some harmony and chugging along in the same general direction, rather than working against one another. People “like myself” would also be people who share a similar frame of reference, so that we can speak in a cultural shorthand, understand each other, and trust each other to some degree. I grew up in a white American middle class family with solid working class roots. I am not from millionaires or French aristocrats, and I don’t know ‘bout no ghetto. My pap worked on the railroad and my dad plays horseshoes. I’ve never worked on a train and I suck at horseshoes, but I have a connection with folks like that. Those are my people.

Believing in the same order as a foundation for [civic] friendship. Not just agreeinment upon common goods, but upon the means to those goods.

Feminism leads to an attempt at matriarchy:  "Women do not want men in isolated groups together without female supervision, because women know that brother-bonded men set their own values and stop looking to women for guidance or approval."
Andy Nowicki, In Defense of Squares: A Response to Jack Donovan

Economics:
David Rosen, We Are All Luddites
Tired of waiting for the barbarians by Erik Curren (EB)
The Collapse of Complex Societies (review) by Akshay Ahuja (EB)

Christianity:
An Atheist Argues for Europe's Christianity

Gardening:
The Beauty of Dirty Hands

Feminism:
Q & A with Gov. Madeleine Kunin on “the new feminist agenda”
A true believer who can get by being a true believer because of her material advantages.

Movies:
Roger Ebert's review of October Baby. (The Deep Blue Sea)

Music:
Ron Stewart and Earl Scruggs

Wendy MacIsaac:


Fashion:
The Arrogant Aggression of Scruffy Jeans

Looking for meaning in a post-Christian civilization

To avoid despair, one embraces a view in which the Universe is divinized? The quest for vision by Timothy Scott Bennett (EB)

Seeking one's place in Creation, beyond ourselves but not quite yet transcendent -- the post-Christian man may become dissatisfied with himself or with the human race as the ultimate source of meaning. The author mentions the "gods" but does he really believe in their existence? Or is it just a rhetorical device?



Br. Philip Neri Reese, O.P., Truth and the Wonder Trap