In its latest issue, News Weekly has included a piece on Edmund Burke and an announcement about the Edmund Burke conference HERE.
Prestigious academic award to keynote speaker at Edmund Burke Conference
Professor Garrett Ward Sheldon, keynote speaker at the coming Edmund Burke Conference, has received a prestigious academic award from the University of New Mexico. The citation is as follows:
The University of New Mexico Alumni Association announces the recipients of its prestigious James F. Zimmerman, Bernard S. Rodey, Erna S. Fergusson and Faculty Teaching Awards. They include: James F. Zimmerman Award – John Mateczun; Bernard S. Rodey Award – Garrett Sheldon; Erna S. Fergusson Award – Michelle Coons; and Faculty Teaching Award – Steven McLaughlin.
“This year’s awards recipients are making important contributions to our nation, state and university communities,” said Karen Abraham, Executive Director of the UNM Alumni Association. “They are a distinguished and diverse group of talented individuals.”
Bernard S. Rodey Award – Garrett Sheldon (’77 BA)
Garrett Ward Sheldon is The John Morton Beaty Professor of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Virginia College at Wise. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the UNM Honors Program in 1977 and earned a Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Sheldon has published 10 books in the fields of political theory and political theology, including “The Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson” and “Religion and Politics: Major Thinkers on the Relation of Church and State.” He has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University; the University of Vienna, Austria; and Trinity College, Dublin. Sheldon received the Outstanding Faculty in Virginia Award, the highest honor conferred on an academic by the Commonwealth. He is also an ordained Christian minister and author of the novel “What Would Jesus Do?”
For full details of the awards go HERE
The Christmas story according to St Luke, translated by Mgr Ronald Knox
The infancy chapters 1 & 2 of
THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE
Translated by Mgr Ronald Knox, 1945
MANY have been at pains to set forth the history of what time has brought to fulfilment among us, following the tradition of those first eye-witnesses who gave themselves up to the service of the word. And I too, most noble Theophilus, have resolved to put the story in writing for thee as it befell, having first traced it carefully from its beginnings, that thou mayst understand the instruction thou hast already received, in all its certainty Continue reading
The Left can take a break – 2GB is doing the job for them
The ABC and the Fairfax Group are so shamelessly prejudiced in their reporting that it is embarrassing even to the conservative observer. The conservative prides himself on staying connected with the concrete multifarious circumstances of political issues and applying prudential judgement to their solution. So the sort of embarrassment we feel at people with their heads constantly in an ideological delirium mindlessly regurgitating the overdone rhetoric is the sort that we feel listening to someone singing horribly out of tune before a cringing audience.
Of course, any embarrassment the conservative expresses is of no account to the narrow-minded bigoted left. They keep at it, no matter what, doing and saying anything that is going to damage the people they judge out of line with their ideological dogma. Foremost among those out of line, their worst ideological nightmare, is Tony Abbott. They cannot bring to themselves ever to say anything good about him. No matter what the prime minister does, there will always be a way to cast it in a manner that will deliver the maximum damage to the man for whom they have an obsessive pathological hatred. It is the way of the mind infected with Marxism – whether of the Leninist, Frankfurt School or of the Gramsci sort. Tony Abbott is the objectification of all that the Marxist wants removed from society. There can be no compromise. He must be eliminated and the manner of assassination does not matter. Continue reading
Australia in regression
During this last week of Australia’s parliament, many Australians must have been sitting with their heads in their hands despairing that commonsense would ever appear in Australia’s political discourse. The Greens determined to lead the nation into social, economic and political collapse were mouthing their usual poison. The Labour Party has resorted to an all-out Alinsky-style assault on the government’s budget program regardless of the ensuing economic ruin. To top off the Greens/Labour alliance of insanity, the ordinary person possessed of reason was constantly tortured by the antics of the most ignorant irresponsible people that faults in the electoral system have ever allowed into Australian government. A Jacqui Lambie shows just how brittle our democratic system is. Glen Lazarus retired from football as a highly respected champion. His ignorance and irresponsibility is destroying all that. His wife should call him home before he makes a complete ass of himself. Paul Kelly describes below the worst of the week’s happenings. Australia weep. Continue reading
CONSTITUTING THE CONSTITUTION:
UNDERSTANDING THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION THROUGH THE BRITISH CULTURAL CONSTITUTION
by GARRETT WARD SHELDON
Professor Sheldon provides an explanation of the differences between the concepts of a written, a codified and an unwritten constitution. An understanding of these differences is essential for students of constitutionalism. The essay is aimed at American students but is nevertheless of interest to those who have forgotten or never knew the background of their constitutional monarchy
Reference is often made to the legal, philosophical, and historical progenitors of the American Constitution in ideas derived from Great Britain, such as the writings of John Locke or William Blackstone, and familiar documents like the Magna Carta or The Petition of Right of 1628. Perhaps an even more significant constitutional heritage may be found in our inheritance of the British appreciation for the customary or cultural foundations of fundamental law. This appreciation for what is often termed the “organic” constitution, beholden philosophically to Aristotle, Aquinas, and Burke, emphasizes how a society or nation is “constituted,” and the implications of that social constitution for the written or codified document. In this respect, the example of British constitutionalism may be helpful in understanding the proper approach to American constitutional interpretation. Read on here
Why Victorians should re-elect the Coalition
Josh Frydenberg outlines the case for re-electing Victoria’s Coalition government:
Victoria’s path to growth
- by: Josh Frydenberg
- From: The Australian
- November 25, 201412:00AM
THE 3.8 million voters in Victoria face a stark choice. If they re-elect Denis Napthine, they get another four years of strong economic management, record spending on health and education, and an effective federal-state partnership on infrastructure.
If they elect Daniel Andrews, they’ll return to the budget blowouts, infrastructure white elephants and union intimidation on work sites, symptomatic of the Bracks-Brumby years.
History shows the last one-term government in Victoria was John Cain Sr’s Labor government in 1955. Just as Napthine took over from Ted Baillieu mid-term, so Rupert Hamer took over from Henry Bolte in 1972 and went on to retain government in 1973, holding office for another eight years.
But history as predictor takes you only so far. Polls indicate a close race and the election is complicated by a major redistribution of electoral boundaries resulting in the abolition of two safe Coalition seats and the creation of two safe Labor ones. Five seats held by Labor MPs have become notionally Liberal. While the Coalition is well placed to win several of these seats, the redistribution has, as election expert Antony Green observed, removed the traditional advantage of incumbency Continue reading
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s
The Scriptures are an essential part of our literary heritage
22nd Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 22:15-22
After this the Pharisees withdrew, and plotted together, to make him betray himself in his talk. And they sent their own disciples to him, with those who were of Herod’s party, and said, Master, we know well that thou art sincere, and teachest in all sincerity the way of God; that thou holdest no one in awe, making no distinction between man and man; tell us, then, is it right to pay tribute to Caesar, or not? Jesus saw their malice; Hypocrites, he said, why do you thus put me to the test? Shew me the coinage in which the tribute is paid. So they brought him a silver piece, and he asked them, Whose is this likeness? Whose name is inscribed on it? Caesar’s, they said; whereupon he answered, Why then, give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. And they went away and left him in peace, full of admiration for his words.
Saving those who are lost
How could one possibly understand a musical masterpiece like Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion with out being deeply acquainted with the New Testament? The same holds for so much of the West’s musical heritage.
9th November, 2014 – DEDICATION OF THE ARCHBASILICA OF THE MOST HOLY SAVIOUR (LATERAN BASILICAL)
This is the anniversary of the day on which the Basilica of the Most Holy Saviour was dedicated, the first church of Rome to receive solemn consecration. It is the Cathedral church of the Pope, and consequently the chief church of the Catholic world. Several Councils have been held there.
GOSPEL READING
Luke 19:1-10
He had entered Jericho, and was passing through it; and here a rich man named Zacchaeus, the chief publican, was trying to distinguish which was Jesus, but could not do so because of the multitude, being a man of small stature. So he ran on in front, and climbed up into a sycamore tree, to catch sight of him, since he must needs pass that way. Jesus, when he reached the place, looked up and saw him; Zacchaeus, he said, make haste and come down; I am to lodge to-day at thy house. And he came down with all haste, and gladly made him welcome. When they saw it, all took it amiss; He has gone in to lodge, they said, with one who is a sinner. But Zacchaeus stood upright and said to the Lord, Here and now, Lord, I give half of what I have to the poor; and if I have wronged anyone in any way, I make restitution of it fourfold, jesus turned to him and said, To-day, salvation has been brought to this house; he too is a son of Abraham. That is what the Son of Man has come for, to search out and to save what was lost.
Conference on Edmund Burke
A DIFFERENT WAY OF POLITICAL REASONING
Conference on Edmund Burke, Melbourne, 28th February 2015
Edmund Burke’s Club (Aust) Inc is organizing a conference on the life and thought of Edmund Burke for Saturday 28th February 2015. The theme of the conference will be Edmund Burke’s concept of political reason. The sessions will cover Burke’s political career from the time he left Dublin to enter the political world in London through to his last days when he maintained his rage against revolutionary France and rightly warned that their slogan Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité would end in subjecting France to a rigid military dictatorship. And so it happened.
The mode of Burke’s reasoning will be followed through the major issues he dealt with: the fight for Irish relief; the misuse and abuse of power, especially by the British throne; the conflict with the American colonies; the impeachment of Warren Hastings and the abuse of British rule in India; and the attack on the natural rights theory of Revolutionary France. The influence of some of the philosophers of the British Enlightenment on Burke’s thinking will also be considered.
The conference will be of keen interest to those who want to deepen their understanding of the man who is claimed to be the father of modern conservative thought. The keynote speaker will be Professor Garrett Ward Sheldon, The John Morton Beaty Professor of Political and Social Sciences, University of Virginia College at Wise. More details about the conference will be announced in the coming weeks. Any enquiries can be addressed to Gerard Wilson on 0419 002 163 or edmundburkesclub@bigpond.com
See update on conference HERE