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Entry: Postmodern, Not Hypermodern: Russell Kirk Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/postmodern_not_hypermodern_russell_kirk#14308 Post contents: While I agree that Kirk was not so much a Thomist as an Augustinian you will find that the Reformers were also men deeply indebted to Augustine. This does not necessarily mean that Kirk was closer to Protestants for Roman Catholics like Christopher Dawson were also deeply Augustinian (as was Tolkien) and they shared Kirk emphasis on the moral imagination. Of course, some of the Protestant Scholastics, like Peter Martyr Vermigli, Jerome Zanchius, and John Owen were Thomists. All were defenders of natural law as has been recently demonstrated by the Acton Institutes' Stephen Grabill's Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics. I do think that Kirk's thought patterns were deeply influenced by his cultural protestantism. He descended from a line of cultural protestants with roots in New England Puritanism and Scottish Presbyterianism. Although the theological foundations had descended into unitarianism, Swedenborgianism, and the strange specter of spiritualism there is an undeniable cultural inheritance. To Frank Purcell's point, all I can recall is this passage that recounts the story of Annette bring home Clinton Wallace: "A few minutes later, Annette burst upon Russell, who lay abed--being too frequently given to indolence on the Sabbath, the charge brought against his Pilgrim ancestor Abraham Pierce-- and shouted, 'Russell, do you want to meet a bum?' (pg. 351)." Notice how the shadow of Protestantism, even Puritanism is interlaced in the passage? He speaks of his Pilgrim ancestor but also of the Sabbath and his personal sin of indolence. This is deeply suggestive of a man who owned his Protestant and Puritan heritage even as he took comfort from his Roman Catholicity. Of course, authentic confessional Protestantism cannot be blamed for Kirk's sleeping in while his wife attended Mass. Failure to attend public worship and the means of grace are matters of church discipline even for those who believe that we are justified sola fide (how does this relate to the relationship of faith to works in justification?). The heart of the situation is Kirk's conservatism and his recognition that even in converting to Rome he could not escape the haunting inheritance of the faith of his fathers. I do not have the reference at the tip of my finger but I recall that Kirk answered the question about the man's ultimate meaning by alluding to the First Question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: What is Man's Chief End? Man's chief end it so glorify God and enjoy Him forever." BTW John Randolph of Roanoke is included in the Conservative Mind and in Kirk's biography he makes the point that that Randolph's Anglicanism was deeply evangelical and influenced by Samuel Davies. That places Randolph's protestant faith to the left of Old Light and Old School Presbyterianism. Of course, we would also have to note that many of those "atheists" in the Conservative Mind were "Protestant" atheists (I use to word loosely) including John Adams, Fisher Ames, ect. and all the men in the chapter on New England, ect. Some of the "atheists" were Roman Catholic "atheists" like Santayana. My point is that Kirk's Conservatism transcended the breach between Rome and Geneva/Canterbury/ Boston and made common cause with all defenders of Anglo-American traditionalism (especially those traditions that he could feel in his blood). Sent at: 2008 07 06