The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Traveling Music Submitted by Ray Olson “The Lordly Hudson” by Paul Goodman “Driver, what stream is it?” I asked, well knowing it was our lordly Hudson hardly flowing. “It is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing,” he said, “under the green-grown cliffs.” Be still, heart! No one needs your passionate suffrage to select this glory, this is our lordly Hudson hardly flowing under the green-grown cliffs. “Driver, has this a peer in Europe or the East?” “No, no!” he said. Home! Home! Be quiet, heart! This is our lordly Hudson and has no peer in Europe or the East. This is...
In this primitive period of East-West unity, Rome established its preeminence above all in the context of theological controversies, where it took on the role of unflinching champion of orthodoxy. The Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople had formulated a creed that became the universal bedrock of faith, but in a certain sense they did not go far enough, for they did not speak explicitly to the different theories about Jesus Christ, His personhood and natures, that arose and clashed in the fifth century. This was a matter of special concern for the emperors in Constantinople, who looked with anxiety to...
A good case can be made for the futility of all arguments, starting with the domestic kind and ascending to the theological, but if one finds oneself debating the color of the sunset – which one’s opponent sees as mauve while it’s obviously purple – I suppose that’s life and no harm done. It’s different when the subject is politics, something I haven’t argued about since university. To be sure, I’ve made my views known in writing and in conversation, but a proper argument depends less on exposition than on rebuttals, which are used to corner the opponent and, if...
The Road to Damascus The Intelligent Christian’s Guide to the Schism Pt. 2: Roman Christianity before the East-West Schism Let us not deceive ourselves. There was never an era of Christian history completely innocent of schism. Indeed, the believer should not be scandalized to see dissension and quarreling in the very pages of his New Testament—among the disciples of Jesus contending with each other for the seat at His right hand in the Coming Age (cf. Matt. 20:20-28 and Lk. 22:24-27); between Paul, felled by the voice of Christ on the road to Damascus, and Peter, to whom Christ entrusted...
“I’ll have an espresso. No garlic, please.” What, does the gentle reader think that this is a foolish thing to add? That it’s absurd and unnecessary? Not in London it isn’t, because here anything’s possible. I mean, the people here have invented something called a “double espresso,” which has no greater right to existence than a double car, a double umbrella or a double wife. In Italy, if you want another coffee, you may ask for it, but the whole existential machinery of the thing is set up in such a way that a “double espresso” is patently a nonsense...
Dear Friends, Fellow Travelers, Subscribers, Casual Browsers: Mark your calendars for the second week in January 2019. The Fleming Foundation is finalizing plans for our second voyage of exploration. This time we are going to Sicily. Many of you are aware that since 2000, I have been taking small groups to Europe. Although we have done programs in Scotland, France, and Serbia-Montenegro, we have concentrated mainly on the two homes of our civilization, Greece and Italy. In 2019, we shall probably be going to the South of France, but I wanted to make what I hope will not be...
“If you can read this,” goes a popular bumper sticker, “thank a teacher.” And if a bumper sticker is all you can read, and if your idea of citizenship is to vote for the politician who promises the most, you can thank a teacher for that too.
How John McCain’s funeral reunited the squabbling wings of the American Left.
By now you might know who supposedly wrote the fake op-ed, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” Subhead: “I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” My guess it’s a couple of mid-level, semi-literate staffers. I’ve written a couple thousand op-eds, and edited many thousands more, and it just doesn’t read right. Consider the first sentence: “President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.” Worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis? Or Reagan facing...
