Recommended Reading

Superfluous Southerners

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Congratulations to my friend, Jay Langdale, on his new book, Superfluous Southerners: Cultural Conservatism in the South, 1920-1990, to be published in November, 2012. This promises to be a wonderful book. Here is a summary from the publisher:

In Superfluous Southerners, John J. Langdale III tells the story of traditionalist conservatism and its boundaries in twentieth-century America. Because this time period encompasses both the rise of the modern conservative movement and the demise of southern regional distinctiveness, it affords an ideal setting both for observing the potentiality of American conservatism and for understanding the fate of the traditionalist “man of letters.” Langdale uses the intellectual and literary histories of John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, and Allen Tate—the three principal contributors to the Agrarian manifesto I’ll Take My Stand—and of their three most remarkable intellectual descendants—Cleanth Brooks, Richard Weaver, and Melvin Bradford—to explore these issues.

Langdale begins his study with some observations on the nature of American exceptionalism and the intrinsic barriers which it presents to the traditionalist conservative imagination. While works like Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club have traced the origins of modern pragmatic liberalism during the late nineteenth century, the nature of conservative thought in postbellum America remains less completely understood. Accordingly, Langdale considers the origins of the New Humanism movement at the turn of the twentieth century, then turning to the manner in which midwesterners Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer Moore stirred the imagination of the southern Agrarians during the 1920s.

After the publication of I’ll Take My Stand in 1930, Agrarianism splintered into three distinct modes of traditionalist conservatism: John Crowe Ransom sought refuge in literary criticism, Donald Davidson in sectionalism, and Allen Tate in an image of the religious-wayfarer as a custodian of language. Langdale traces the expansion of these modes of traditionalism by succeeding generations of southerners. Following World War II, Cleanth Brooks further refined the tradition of literary criticism, while Richard Weaver elaborated the tradition of sectionalism. However, both Brooks and Weaver distinctively furthered Tate’s notion that the integrity of language remained the fundamental concern of traditionalist conservatism.

Langdale concludes his study with a consideration of neoconservative opposition to M.E. Bradford’s proposed 1980 nomination as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities and its significance for the southern man of letters in what was becoming postmodern and postsouthern America. Though the post–World War II ascendance of neoconservatism drastically altered American intellectual history, the descendants of traditionalism remained largely superfluous to this purportedly conservative revival which had far more in common with pragmatic liberalism than with normative conservatism.

Congratulations Jay!

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 01 October 2012 01 October 2012; Hits: 7629 7629

Eugene Genovese, R.I.P.

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Eugene Genovese passed away on September 26, 2012, at 82 years of age. Those who have read him know of his excellent scholarship. I first read his The Southern Front: The Achievements and Limitations of American Conservatism several years ago, and then just recently read his A Consuming Fire: The Fall of the Confederacy in the Mind of the White Christian South. Both were excellent, and I will undoubtedly return to them over time. For students (and others!) interested in learning and reading, it is essential to read folks like Genovese: persons willing to take on this or that orthodoxy, and to question (at least some of!) the received wisdom. Paul Gottfried reflects on his life and work here.

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 28 September 2012 28 September 2012; Hits: 4300 4300

William J. Dumbrell and the Covenant with Noah

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I am thankful that when I first begin to read and study in the area of biblical theology that I discovered the work of William J. Dumbrell. He is very helpful, and I pray he continues to write and publish for many years. Attached is a summary of his article on the covenant with Noah, an article published in 1979. I summarized the article for my own purposes when I was first working through many issues in biblical theology. He wrote a number of articles during that time period which are worth tracking down. Many of his thoughts on the "big picture" of biblical theology can be found (in a tad more clear and accessible form, imho), in his The Search for Order: Biblical Eschatology in Focus.

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 27 September 2012 27 September 2012; Hits: 3490 3490

Thomas Weinandy and Impassibility

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A number of years ago I stumbled upon Thomas Weinandy's book, Does God Suffer (Notre Dame, 2000). To my mind it is the best thing available on the impassibility of God. In particular, I have re-read chapter 8, "The Incarnation--The Impassible Suffers", numerous times. Reading this chapter alone is like taking a first-rate seminar on Christology. If you can find a copy, this book is highly recommended. Here is an essay by Weinandy that appeared in First Things magazine back in 2001, summarizing the heart of his argument.

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 24 September 2012 24 September 2012; Hits: 3222 3222

Henri Blocher Tackles the Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment

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Perhaps one of the most challenging and difficult doctrines for Evangelicals (and all traditional Christians) is the notion of everlasting punishment. To my mind, one of the finest treatments is the essay by Henri Blocher on the topic, found in Nigel Cameron, ed., Universalism and the Doctrine of Hell. I recently found a sermon online by Blocher on this difficult issue. It can be accessed here.

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 19 September 2012 19 September 2012; Hits: 3841 3841

Russell Kirk and the Southern Tradition

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The Imaginative Conservative has posted an older essay by Clyde Wilson, where Wilson reflects on Russell Kirk's appreciation and affirmation of the Southern tradition. Kirk's book on John Randolph of Roanoke (his master's thesis!) expressed great appreciation for the Virginian. Similarly, Wilson notes that Kirk had read the agrarian Donald Davidson's The Attack on Leviathan with great appreciation (and Kirk subsequently made sure it was re-published). And Kirk's appreciation for South Carolinian John C. Calhoun was profound (see here for an earller post on Kirk on Calhoun). Wilson's essay is a good introduction to Kirk's appreciation of the Southern tradition.

Details: Category: Recommended Reading Recommended Reading; Published: 18 September 2012 18 September 2012; Hits: 2984 2984

Superfluous Southerners

Eugene Genovese, R.I.P.

William J. Dumbrell and the Covenant with Noah

Thomas Weinandy and Impassibility

Henri Blocher Tackles the Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment

Russell Kirk and the Southern Tradition

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