Yes, that Roger Scruton. I assume he needs no introduction around these parts. Scruton has written extensively on music (I recommend his book The Aesthetics of Music, a difficult but rewarding read), as well as doing some occasional composing. Recordings of his two operas, Violet and The Minister, are unfortunately not available, but he has posted a lovely trio of Lorca songs on his blog.
Tag Archives: Roger Scruton
Modern Architecture, Islam, & the Indispensability of the Trinity
From time to time the Orthosphere publishes essays submitted by readers. This essay, by frequent commenter Dale James Nelson, is our first. It is particularly apt for Maundy Thursday.
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On March 16, at his Miscellany, Dr. Bruce Charlton posted a brief entry under the title A Soul-less Building vs. a Soul-Destroying Building. He wrote, “A building that actively sucks-out your soul is worse than a building which is a desert for the soul.”
Reading Dr. Charlton’s entry, I remembered part of an essay by Roger Scruton, The West and the Rest, published in 2002. If you’re like me, you tend to skim or skip long quotations in blogs. Please do read the following passages from Scruton. They speak to Dr. Charlton’s point about architecture – living spaces, work places – that nurture the soul – or that, as is the way of modernity, starve or damage the soul.
Basic Readings on the Web
This is an incomplete list, and based largely on what I’ve personally found enlightening or interesting (I’ve even taken the liberty of including some of my own writings), so feel free to suggest additions.
On Liberalism and Modernity
- Edward Feser – Blinded by Scientism and Recovering Sight After Scientism
- Edward Feser – The New Philistinism
- Kristor Lawson – Only a Mass Apostasy from Liberalism can Save Us [What is a Traditionalist to Do?]
- Mark Richardson – What is Shaping the West? and Autonomy Theory (chapters one and two of an untitled and currently unfinished pamphlet on liberalism)
- Alan Roebuck – How to Respond to a Supercilious Atheist
- Svein Sellanraa – The Nature of Authority
On Conservatism and Tradition
- Lawrence Auster – What is traditionalism? A collection
- Bonald – In Defense of Tradition
- Bonald – The Meaning of Conservatism
- Bonald – The Conservative Vision of Authority
- Bonald – A taxonomy of the Right (addendum)
- James Kalb – Q&A at 2Blowhards: Parts one, two, and three
- Metternich (Svein Sellanraa) – A Genealogy of the Right
On Particular Issues
- Bonald – In Defense of the Patriarchal Family
- Bonald – In Defense of Regional Cultures
- Bonald – In Defense of Monarchy
- Bonald – In Defense of Censorship
- Bonald – In Defense of Religion
- Mark Richardson – Sex distinctions, The family, and Nation & ethny (chapters 3-5 of the aforementioned pamphlet)
- Roger Scruton – Harming Oneself and Harming Others: Parts one, two, three, four, and five (along with Bonald’s essays, probably the key instigator in my “conversion” to traditionalist conservatism — others will hopefully find it equally helpful)
On the Orthosphere
- Bruce Charlton – The Kalbosphere idea (be sure to read the comments, where the term was first coined)
- Bruce Charlton – The Orthosphere it is? Do Ortho bloggers and other Ortho people agree?
- Proph – On What to Call Us Far-Right Bloggers
- Svein Sellanraa – The Rise of the Orthos
