As my guest blogging nears its end, there are some web sites that I thought I'd recommend. These are sites that I came to know since my time as a regular blogger here.
Rod Dreher is the author of Crunchy Cons, a book with a really long subtitle. There is much in that book that folks on both the right and the left can agree on. The same is true of his blog, found at the American Conservative. Obviously, Dreher is coming from the right, but a brief stroll through his site will tell you that he is not reading from the Republican hymn book (just note Dreher's obvious contempt for Mitt Romney). Dreher is highly influenced by the agrarian localist poet and essayist Wendell Berry. So are the folks at the Front Porch Republic. To know what this site is about, read the inaugural essay by Patrick Deneen, A Republic of Front Porches. A brief snippet:
We are daily less a republic because we daily perceive less of what are common or public things – res publica. Without the literal spaces where we come to know what we have in common through speech, habit and memory, we regard politics as a competitive spectator sport and government as a distant imposition – but in any event, anything but self-rule.
Both Dreher and the Porchers dislike Big Government and Big Business. I wrote about this here.
In a similar vein is the indominatible Mars Hill Audio Journal. This podcast is what the title says, a journal in audio form. It consists of the highly literate host, Ken Meyers, interviewing authors about their latest work. Each edition has 6-8 interviews of around 15 minutes each. So each edition is just over an hour, usually. Meyers is quite open that this is a Christian project (the name suggests that). He is interested in how Christianity and Christians encounter the culture. But as such, the podcast touches on art, literature, history, philosophy, technology and, yes, theology. This is a subscription service, but you can listen to some free samples here. You'll note that one of those samples is Patrick Deneen talking about Wendell Berry. In fact, I'd say that's a good place to start, along with anything by Weaton English professor Alan Jacobs, the most frequent Mars Hill guest. Just peruse the subject matter and you'll get an idea of the breadth of topics covered. I think even a brief encounter with Mars Hill Audio will convince you that these are discussions working on a high intellectual level.
Comments