The Genealogies of Modernity Journal
René Girard, Modernity, Apocalypse, Part II
“Girardian revelation is a necessary addition to the genealogies of the modern, not in any sense of religion making a comeback to contest the secular, but in a sense internal to the secular itself. ”
Anthony Bartlett on René Girard
René Girard, Modernity, Apocalypse, Part I
“Girard’s generative anthropology rises from a discovery of foundational violence, and constantly illustrates a desperate contemporary need to somehow free ourselves from this violence.”
Anthony Bartlett on René Girard
Pathways, September 2025
Each month we keep track of the different paths modern life is taking and how writers are keeping up. Here are some routes we recently found on our modern life.
Worldpicture, Part III: The Cartesian Roots of Quantum Theory and Postmodernism
“We must recognize that the post-Cartesian reductive-materialist frameworks will never be sufficient to support a robust and expansive human flourishing.”
M. G. Scott on re-accessing metastructure
Worldpicture, Part II: The New Quantum Ontology
“The truly strange thing about quantum mechanics is not the content of the theory: it’s the way that quantum mechanics threatens to upend our fundamental relationship to reality itself.”
M. G. Scott on quantum mechanics and truth.
Worldpicture, Part I: Greek Tragedy, Postmodernism, and the Decline of Metastructure
“The opposite of the self-defining subject of the postmodern era is one whose existence is conditioned entirely by realities outside the self. ”
M. G. Scott on the existential comforts of Greek tragedy.
The Problems and Possibilities of Crypto-religious Art
Elie pushes us to reconsider and expand our idea of what counts as religious and/or sacred art, but we should be careful not to collapse the transcendent sphere into the natural world.
Aaron James Weisel reviews Paul Elie’s latest book.
Pathways, August 2025
Each month we keep track of the different paths modern life is taking and how writers are keeping up. Here are some routes we recently found on our modern life.
Is There a Modern Potlatch?
Does the agonistic ritual of the potlatch—identified as “primitive” by some—only belong to the past or does it appear in the so-called modern world?
Carl Friesenhahn looks at three ways of answering this question.
Human Rights and Humanity in “The Phoenician Scheme”
Here in the middle of these muted colors and fantastical plot is an observation straight out of Hannah Arendt.
Elizabeth Stice on philosophy in Wes Anderson
Dante’s Modernity, Our Modernity
Reddy’s journey through the afterlife implicitly takes on a deeper question: what makes our modern life—and, by extension, our modern afterlife—different from Dante’s?
Flourishing in the Face of Suffering and Death
What can psychology tell us about human flourishing?
Brent Robbins on the Beatitudes as an answer to the problem of evil
Great Composers and the Spirituality of Music
Is the work of the composer and musician a distinctively human act?
A discussion with Maestro Manfred Honeck
Madame Bovary and the Perils of Media Consumption
Flaubert’s classic speaks not only to the social conditions of 19th century France, but also to the consumerist and media-stimulated dissatisfaction we face in the 21st century.
Elizabeth Stice on Flaubert’s enduring warnings
Cruel and Unusual: A Supreme Dilemma of Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence
Evidently, the language which would be assumed under the Eighth Amendment originates from the intent of delegates to secure proper respect for the unalienable rights of all people.
Jackson Jannell on liberty and death
Newman’s “Idea of a University” as a Foundation for Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Programs: Part II
Newman’s model of liberal arts study provides an ideal roadmap for how to create a program that would encourage focused, meaningful interdisciplinary learning.
Gina Elia on the application of Newman’s ideals
Newman’s “Idea of a University” as a Foundation for Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts Programs: Part I
To showcase the ongoing relevance of a liberal arts education to students, programs should emphasize the roles of generalists, as opposed to specialists, in a society’s infrastructure.
Gina Elia on the ongoing urgency of John Henry Newman