Community

FROM VOL. 155 Historian Christopher Shannon discusses how American academic historical writing presents a grand narrative of progressivism, which it defends by subscribing to an orthodoxy of objective Reason. (21 minutes)

In a lecture at Providence College, Ken Myers explores how the concept of friendship, which used to be central to political philosophy, was banished from considerations of public life as the state was exalted over society. (53 minutes)

Front Porch Republic aims to bring together thoughtful men and women across America to promote human-scale institutions and the rebirth of community.

Marion Montgomery on the precious gift of words

Marion Montgomery on cultivating “a deportment of intellect governed by a continuing concern for the truth of things”

Thomas H. Naylor and William H. Willimon on why suspicion about big government shouldn’t take the form of autonomous individualism

Christine Pohl describes the practice of hospitality in Church history and the particular challenges to hospitality we face in our era. (30 minutes)

Ivan Illich on “the opposite of industrial productivity”

In conversation with moral philosopher Oliver O’Donovan, and with readings from his book, Entering into Rest, Ken Myers explores a central theme in O’Donovan’s work: that we are created to enjoy loving relationships in community. (27 minutes)

Writing in the mid-1990s, Alan Ehrenhalt reflects on the relationship between authority and community

Alan Ehrenhalt argues that real community can only be sustained when three things are assumed: the goodness of limits, the necessity of authority, and the reality of personal sin. (13 minutes)

Clare Stober discusses the book she edited of stories of the Bruderhof, a network of 26 community settlements around the world. (30 minutes)

From 1999 Journal interviews, Neal Gabler and C. John Summerville discuss how the mentalities conveyed by our experience with communications media work against the nurturing of community. Ken Myers also reads related excerpts from George Steiner and Oliver O'Donovan. (33 minutes)

In this audio reprint of “Wendell Berry and Zoom,” Front Porch Republic editor Jeffrey Bilbro reflects on two metaphors that can help put our new-found “dependency” on web-based video conferencing into perspective: tinned fruit and a prosthetic limb. (17 minutes)

D. C. Schindler on the metaphysical character of real community

Oliver O’Donovan on the necessity of tradition in sustaining communal identity

Architects, historians, activists, and clergy discuss how loving our neighbors can and must take shape in how we order the material aspects of shared life. (100 minutes)

FEATURED GUESTS: Steven Shapin, Arthur Boers, Christine Pohl, Norman Wirzba, Craig Bartholomew, and David I. Smith

FEATURED GUESTS: Thomas Albert Howard, Jean Porter, Peter Augustine Lawler, Hans Boersma, Felicia Wu Song, and Elias Aboujaoude

Joshua P. Hochschild examines the effects of globalization on local communities and argues for the need for reflection on the ends of politics given the ends of human beings. (36 minutes)