Approximately 600 people attended the “Celebrating Middle Earth: The Lord of the Rings as a Defense of Western Civilization” conference at SPU last Friday and Saturday. The conference was co-sponsored by the SPU Society of Fellows, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Discovery Institute and hosted by the C.S. Lewis Institute. Associate Professor of Political Science John West, who first Read More ›
The war on terrorism has absorbed our attention since September 11th. While this is appropriate, we should not forget that the long-simmering cultural wars continue. The other side is hard at work, chipping away patiently while all eyes are turned toward Afghanistan. The latest threat? Courtesy of PBS, the bonobos the “make love, not war” primates are coming Read More ›
For Americans who want to limit abortion on demand, a window of opportunity now stands open in Congress. Whether pro-life legislators seize this opportunity will depend on whether they prefer symbolic victory or substantive reform. Two years ago Congress’s newly elected pro-life majority proposed the smallest of incremental restrictions on abortion, triggering a remarkable series of events. Scarcely a year Read More ›
When readers in England recently were asked to name “the greatest book of the century,” they chose J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Many critics were scandalized, finding it incomprehensible that the public could honor a work the literary community had largely dismissed as old-fashioned, didactic, and escapist. Yet the survey was far from a fluke. Tolkien’s writings have Read More ›
“All of the speakers and subject matter sound ridiculously interesting to me. It is going to be great,” freshman Than Vlachos said about the upcoming J.R.R. Tolkien conference at SPU. The conference, titled “Celebrating Middle Earth,” will seek to tell “the story behind the story” of J.R.R. Tolkiens “The Lord of the Rings.” Conference sessions will focus on exploring the Read More ›
An important part of the current controversy over the theoretical status of evolutionary theory concerns its moral implications. Does evolutionary theory undermine traditional morality, or does it support it? Does it suggest that infanticide is natural (as Steven Pinker asserts) or is it a bulwark against liberal relativism (as Francis Fukuyama argues)? Does it rest on a universe devoid of Read More ›