Russell Kirk "Redeeming the Time."
A collection of excellent lectures that Russell Kirk delivered at the Heritage Foundation, includes one that is particularly insightful. It is called, The Conservative Purpose of a Liberal Education.
Kirk was the leading exponent of intellectual conservatism in the United States. By "conservatism" we don't mean that mix of Evangelical religion, free enterprise, and US boosterism that goes by that name. Kirk was steeped in European conservative thought and some of his views would fall outside much of the conservative mainstream today.
A gifted stylist, Kirk brought the most theoretically complex subjects within the understanding of the least intellectually sophisticated, and he made his performance seem so natural as to escape notice. Meanwhile, he was teaching at the highest level, spicing penetrating analyses with witty asides and charming anecdotes. Like a great preacher, he knew how to bring the knottiest theological problems down to earth in “a practical sermon” that responds to everyday concerns in language people of all sorts can understand. And like a great preacher, he had an unerring eye for cant.
"Redeeming the Time" collects essays that Kirk originally delivered as public lectures at the Heritage Foundation between 1980 and 1994, and Kirk intended it as a companion volume to his "Politics of Prudence," which also originated as lectures at Heritage. Despite being a collection of essays, "Redeeming the Time" has a strong central theme, which it develops along several lines. As a bonus, Jeffrey O. Nelson provides a brief, graceful commentary on Kirk’s books and ideas.
Isi Book. Hardcover. 1996.
New book.