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Eric Scheske

The Art of Ghosting (Second Take)

Ghosting. The Irish Goodbye. The Drunken Magician. All synonyms for my favorite drinking move: Leaving the gathering without saying goodbye. I know it’s socially unacceptable. It even rises to the level of rudeness if it leaves your friends with concerns that you might be hurt (like the time I

How to Write for Surfer Dudes

I spent last summer, taking digital essay lessons. They were part of a series that I call, “Learning to Write for Morons,” by Medium.com. I learned a lot, but I can condense the lessons into one premise: If you're writing online articles, you have a split second

English Drunks, Both Fictional and Not

I linked to The Guardian’s obituary of Wilfrid Sheed (1940-2011) yesterday. Sheed’s first book was A Middle Class Education (1960), which was apparently semi-autobiographical, much like Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. The Guardian notes that there’s a lot of drinking in Middle Class: Owing more

Why the Marxist Kicks You in the Groin

The objection to a Communist always resolves itself into the fact that he is not a gentleman. It is not possible to engage in controversy with him as one engages in controversy with other men. He invariably hits below the belt if he can; indeed, his resentment is not so

Mystical Sex, Theft, and Violence

One of the most perplexing groups in medieval history got strong in the 1300s.

Please Don't Think I Can Judge Anyone's Soul, Especially a Genius Like Merton's

I want to point out: This essay is conjecture. In a way, I "work backward" from a lifetime of reading and admiring Merton's writings, combining them with biographical details, adding my understanding of Gnosticism and the Hemisphere Hypothesis, and coming up with this explanation of the

Why Francis Bacon is Properly Considered a Founding Father of Modernity

It’s no wonder the poet William Blake wrote of Bacon’s essays, “Good advice for Satan’s Kingdom.”

Introducing Eric Voegelin

Voegelin was not charismatic. He was a “gentleman thinker.” He didn’t like small talk and valued his time. His personality didn’t attract a cult-like following. He didn’t establish a school or movement. But he’s important.

The Metaxy: A Primer

Christianity says life is hard because of Original Sin. Eric Voegelin would say it's hard because we live in the metaxy. METAXY: The permanent in-between structure of existence. Sometimes referred to as the between or in-between, meaning that humans live in a structure of reality that

Top Ten Mystics of the 14th Century

They were the rock stars of late medieval Europe