Should intellectuals speak truth to power? What are the limits to such an understanding of the intellectual life? Check out Mark Lilla‘s timely piece, “Treason of the Intellectuals.” Here are a few excerpts: The political prophet’s kingdom is still not...
intellectual life
Barack Obama talks about writing his memoir
I am reading Obama’s memoir A Promised Land with my daughter. Actually, Caroline is listening to the audio version and I am reading the text. She is about a chapter ahead of me. This morning we exchanged notes at lunch....
“Life is a whole”
(I usually post this speech every other year or so). Yesterday on Twitter someone was trying to separate my writing in books from my writing here at the blog. I told him that I don’t categorize my work that way....
John Wesley and the Life of the Mind
“I am an evangelical Christian, so it was nice to hear a lecture about evangelicalism that was not related to contemporary politics.” This was our intern Annie Thorn‘s response to Bruce Hindmarsh’s lecture “John Wesley, Early Evangelicalism, and Science.” Hindmarsh,...
The Difference Between “Intelligence” and “Intellect”
I am revisiting Richard Hofstadter‘s Pulitzer-Prize winning book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963). Early in the book, Hofstadter makes a distinction between “intelligence” and “intellect.” I found it useful. Here is a taste: p. 25: Intelligence works within the framework...
Intellectualism and Anti-Intellectualism in the Age of Trump
Here is a taste of Adam Water‘s and E.J. Dionne‘s recent piece at Dissent: “Is Anti-Intellectualism Ever Good for Democracy?” Intellectuals are not entitled to special privileges, and “intellectualism” should not be seen as a superior way of life. But the...
The Civil Rights Movement as an Intellectual Movement
We usually think of the civil rights movement in political, moral, and even religious terms, but we seldom think about it in terms of what historian Joshua Clark Davis calls a “movement for intellectual change.” Here is a taste of...
Help Bring John Wilson to *Englewood Review of Books*
I am really glad to hear that Englewood Review of Books is growing and making a concerted effort to bring John Wilson aboard full-time. Here is a letter from editor Christopher Smith and several other scholars, including historian Mark Noll: As you...
What’s the Most Influential Book of the Past 20 Years?
The Chronicle of Higher Education asked scholars to answer this question. Here are some of the titles they chose: Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined Robert Putnam: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Michelle...
Have Conservative Intellectuals Gone Lowbrow?
Ohio University historian Kevin Mattson thinks so. He argues that conservative intellectuals are now in the business of attacking “educated elites.” He calls this behavior “a grave danger to our democratic discourse.” Here is a taste of his piece at Democracy:...
Rod Dreher Interviews Alan Jacobs on *How to Think*
Here is a taste from Dreher’s blog: I initially thought How To Think would be a basic primer of informal logic. It’s not that at all, but something more interesting. What’s the book about, and why did you write it? Last year,...
“The Closing of the American Mind” at 30
Allan Bloom‘s bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind, turns thirty this year. Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, cultural critic and New Left activist Todd Gitlin reflects: “You can slam its young people into universities with their classrooms and laboratories, and when...
“Pluralism and the Art of Disagreement”
Last week we wrote about Princeton University president Christopher Eisgruber’s criticism of the religious questions posed to federal judge nominee Amy Coney Barrett by Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Today we call your attention to Eisgruber’s speech at...
Solitude and the Christian Historian
Over at The Pietist Schoolman, Chris Gehrz riffs on my piece on intellectual loneliness by suggesting that loneliness, and even solitude, may be a good thing for Christians. Here are a few snippets from his post “The Loneliness (and Solitude)...
“Education and Culture” Is Here!
John Wilson‘s new venture, “Education & Culture: A Critical Review,” is now up and running at bestschools.org. Bookmark it and visit often. Many of you know John Wilson as the founder and only editor of the now defunct Books & Culture (1995-2016). With...
Cornel West and Ross Douthat Together at the University of St. Thomas
I have been concerned lately about the lack of open debate and public conversation on college campuses. All colleges and universities invite guest speakers to campus. At my college we do a fair job of inviting a range of...
I Could Be Wrong
Over at the Inside Higher Ed blog “Confessions of a Community College Dean,” Matt Reed writes about the relationship between leadership and intellectual humility. It’s a nice reflection on an important virtue: In a sense, intellectual humility strikes me as...
Deresiewicz: Select Private Colleges Have Become "Religious" Schools
William Deresiewicz‘s recent article at The American Scholar is especially pertinent in light of what recently happened to Charles Murray at Middlebury College. Deresiewicz writes “political correctness and rational discourse are incompatible ideas.” Here is a taste: Selective private colleges...
Quote of the Day
The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind. An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America, including great sacrifice in spreading the message...
The Intellectual Life–Part 9
Recently I reread the A.G. Sertillanges’s classic work on the life of the mind: The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Sertillanges (1863-1948) was a Catholic writer and a member of the Dominican Order. He published The Intellectual Life in 1934. Read...