The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

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Clyde Wilson / Feature

12 Oct, 2021

What’s Happened to the Eschaton?

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Many, many years ago, in my callow and misspent youth, I had a lapel button that said:  “Don’t let them immanentize the eschaton.” This was a pretty good saying and conversation starter despite the fact, as I recall, that it was popularized by the intellectually shallow poseur William Buckley. The saying was an  over-simplified reference to the vast, erudite, and dense writings of Eric Voegelin.  Reduced shamefully to the simplest terms, immanentizing the eschaton is an attempt to bring Heaven to earth by the actions of men.  For Christian civilization the given universe is a divine design which includes the...

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Fleming / Free Content

11 Oct, 2021

Resisting Evil, V: The Fundamental Things of Life

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Instead of plunging headlong into the tedious history of self-defense legislation, let us rather begin (as Plato or John Locke might) by imagining a state of society in which there is no legitimate authority or, at least, no legal power to protect the innocent or punish the guilty.  We do not have to dig into the ethnographic accounts of such violent peoples as the Ifugao of the Philippines or the Yanamano of South America.  The Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic peoples of Europe provide a rich record of violent periods in which self-help and vengeance were a normal means of protection...

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Articles / Autodidact

11 Oct, 2021

The Autodidact Remembers

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Once upon a time I decided to learn Japanese.  I had none of the usual practical reasons: no business interests that would take me to Japan nor even an academic project comparing Noh plays with Attic tragedy.

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Podcasts

8 Oct, 2021

The Doctor Is In.

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    Rex asks Thomas Fleming a hard question:  What is Honor?  The answer ranges from Homer to Clint Eastwood, from Coriolanus to Bill Clinton, and ends with a commentary by Miss Peggy Lee.

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Poetry

6 Oct, 2021

Poetry: George Meredith

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Meredith is best known as the author of such novels as The Ordeal of Richard Feverel and The Egoist, but he was also, at his best, a fine poet.  Unfortunately, much of his poetry is more like fiction in verse.