The Imaginative Conservative

The Imaginative Conservative is an online magazine for those who value the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. We explore various topics including culture, liberal education, politics, political economy, literature, the arts, and the American Republic, drawing inspiration from thinkers like Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, and Paul Elmer More, who are all part of the Imaginative Conservatism movement. Our aim is to respond to T.S. Eliot’s call to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.” The Imaginative Conservative promotes a hopeful, gracious, charitable, grateful, and prayerful form of conservatism for our families, communities, and the Republic. For further insights, consider reading "A Conservatism of Hope" by W. Winston Elliott III, "Ten Conservative Principles" by Russell Kirk, and "Reflections on Imaginative Conservatism" by Eva Brann.

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The Choice Between Love of God and Love of Self

1 week ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Regis Martin

Putting it in precise Augustinian terms, it is the choice between the love of God and the love of self that will determine the outcome of a man’s life. There are two forces at work in the world—gravity and grace—and each of us must choose to follow one or the other. There is no third way. Are we to be moved by the downward pull of the one, leading to dissolution and death? Or do we allow ourselves to be drawn upward by the other, which leads to everlasting life and the joys of Paradise?
Is April the Cruelest Month?

1 week ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Joseph Pearce

Whereas Chaucer had depicted April as the bringer of life that lifts the hearts of the faithful, T.S. Eliot curses April for its cruelty in bringing back to life things and thoughts that were best left dead and buried. April is the cruellest month…. The opening words of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot are amongst the most memorable and memorized in all of literature.
The World of St. Augustine

2 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Regis Martin

What was it about Augustine’s “Confessions” that made it so readable, or managed to endear its author to so many who read it? Might its appeal have had something to do with the fact that here was a great sinner who lived to regret his sins, and so completely reform his life as to become a great saint? In the space of three centuries following the death of Christ, two very different threats arose to bedevil the life of the Church.
Where Is AI Taking Us? One Expert Gets it Wrong

2 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | John Horvat

Yuval Harari, in latest book, “Nexus,” believes that AI endangers the utopian dream of unbridled license that has long been the goal of countless revolutionaries on the left and libertarian anarchists on the right. Modernity is replete with philosophers who interpret reality through prisms. By simplifying their perceptions, such figures seek to change history. Thus, Karl Marx saw everything through the prism of power and money. His class struggle is the battle between the haves and the have-nots.
Protectionism: The Jewel in the Crown of Trumponomics

2 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Joseph Pearce

President Trump’s protection of the American economy through the implementation of protectionist principles with regard to trade is nothing less than an extension of his desire to protect America’s sovereignty. “Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.” —Donald Trump (First Inaugural Address)The world is full of ironies… and the world of politics especially.
Restoring the Humanities: An Education That’s Not For Dummies

3 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Joseph Pearce

Taken together, Louis Markos’ “Passing the Torch” and Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg’s “The Catholic School Playbook” provide invaluable assistance in navigating the turbulent educational waters of our troubled times. They are also a sign of hope and a source of encouragement, and so are the hundreds of newly founded classical academies that are springing up across the land from sea to shining sea.
Seek His Face Evermore: St. Augustine & the Quest for God

3 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Regis Martin

Who among us is erudite enough to set about measuring the immensity of the achievement wrought by Augustine, whose depths clearly defy one’s best efforts to plumb? It was during the pontificate of Paul VI, who has since been raised to the altar, that a gathering of scholars arrived in Rome for a conference on St. Augustine.
The Hidden Saints of Seventh-Century England

3 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Joseph Pearce

Over the centuries, the English have been something of a curse to the Irish. English rulers, such as Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Oliver Cromwell, have sought to impose their will on the people of Ireland, often through the tyrannical use of terror on a defenseless population. There is, however, one sense in which the Irish have conquered not only the English but the whole English-speaking world.
Tradition and Musical Revival

4 weeks ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Joseph Pearce

Tradition is the extension of democracy through time. It is the proxy of the dead and the enfranchisement of the unborn. “Tradition may be defined as the extension of the franchise,” wrote Chesterton. “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.” And he continues: “Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.
The Poetry and Particularity of Mary

1 month ago | theimaginativeconservative.org | Dwight Longenecker

At the Annunciation, in a room in Nazareth, the fresh innocence of Eve is recapitulated, but in a new configuration. This is the nature of creation: that all things general, to become real, must become particular. It should therefore not come as a surprise that God Himself should also take particular flesh from a particular girl on a particular morning in March. Writing poetry makes one aware of words—how does the rhythm implicate and replicate emotion?