Eric Scheske

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Books

Voegelin: An Introduction

I first heard about Voegelin through Russell Kirk's Enemies of the Permanent Things. I bought one of Voegelin's shorter books (The New Science of Politics, I think) and was so confused by it that I called Information/Mecosta, and asked for Russell Kirk's phone

Everyday Drinking

I haven't devoted nearly enough attention to drinking literature, but from the books I've read, Kingly Amis' collection of essays, Everyday Drinking, is some of the best. Sure, he's a limey, but I think the English have a special knack for creating drinking

Friday

Mini-Review Leisure, The Basis of Culture, by John Pieper (1948). Choice quote: "[T]here can be unused space in the total world of work." Obsessed with efficiency? I am. At least I used to be. I'm a recovering efficiencoholic. It was bad, so bad that my

Wednesday

Mini-Review The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by George Gissing (1903) Choice quote: "But oh, how good it is to desire little, and to have a little more than enough!" Nerd heaven: An older writer who scrapes together a living receives a small annuity for life. It'

Tuesday

Mini-Review Introduction: If you find these reviews bizarre yet orthodox, I have accomplished my goal. If you find them entertaining yet profound, I am humbled. If they brings you a little closer to classic works of the twentieth century, I am gratified. If you forward the review to friends with

Monday

Mini-Review The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk (1953) Choice quote: "Hawthorne's chief accomplishment: impressing the idea of sin upon a nation which would like to forget it." My book still has that smell that all the books from that little bookstore in Niles, Michigan, had. I

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Monday

Those are four of my kids, handling a snake during their visit to Detroit these past few days. I think the picture is gross. Snakes give me the willies. It's because I have such a finely-honed sense of original sin and the snake's role in the

Wednesday

Background: When I was the editor of Gilbert Magazine [http://www.chesterton.org/explore-the-acs/gilbertmagazine/], I was responsible for the "Tremendous Trifles" column. It was occasionally hard to find a sufficient amount of interesting GKC material to fill the page, so John Peterson sent me a file full

Saturday

Mini-Review Plato and Aristotle by Eric Voegelin (1957). Volume III of Order and History. Choice quote: "Thanatos orients the soul toward the Good by relieving it from the sickness of appearance; Eros is the positive desire for the Good." Plato the mystic. Aristotle the scientist. Right? No. They