The Narthex
Lent and Guilt
Guilt is the recognition that we have responsibilities and that other people matter
By David Daintree | February 15th 2023 3:28 PMI have a confession to make. For me and for many feeble Catholics like myself Lent nowadays is marked by little more than a cardboard money box on the kitchen windowsill and perhaps an intention to drink a little less wine and give up something nice like chocolate for six…
READ FULL BLOG POSTAnchored in Hope
Even the faithful see through a glass darkly, as Saint Paul says
By David Daintree | December 9th 2022 1:20 PMWhat we Christians think of as spiritual realities have never been harder to grasp by ordinary people, in a world so richly endowed by thrilling material blessings yet also plagued by all kinds of miseries. The comforts and the dangers of our lives often almost overwhelm us. A wise friend…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWriting Opinion Pieces
The days when essays occasionally changed readers' minds may have passed
By David Daintree | December 5th 2022 1:37 PMOf making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh (Eccl. xii.12). There was a time when “opinion pieces” occasionally changed readers' minds, but those days may have passed. If you finish reading a piece, you probably by and large agreed with it. If not, you…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Multiracial Society
Once upon a time, integration was a common goal
By David Daintree | November 28th 2022 9:07 PMIn 1967, 55 years ago, a referendum was held in Australia to allow a change to the Constitution that would remove the last impediment to the recognition of our aboriginal people as full citizens. Australians are slow to accept constitutional changes: we have held 44 referenda since federation, but only…
READ FULL BLOG POSTReflections on "Paradise Road"
A film about war's victims probing beyond hatred to sympathy and eventually love
By David Daintree | November 14th 2022 10:00 PMI recently watched the 1997 Bruce Beresford film Paradise Road at home on DVD. As the standard of free-to-air TV continues to plummet gutterwards, I find the urge to fossick through our old disc collections grows all the stronger! Paradise Road is a triumph of the Australian film industry. It…
READ FULL BLOG POSTKazakhstan Conference
'Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions' declared the importance of the family
By David Daintree | October 3rd 2022 2:48 PMThe triennial “Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions” was held in the Kazakh capital Astana from September 13-15. Unsurprisingly it attracted little attention from mainstream media. A report on the congress and a summary of the concluding declaration can be found at the Asia Times website (Sept. 26;…
READ FULL BLOG POSTReturn of the Classics?
The term 'classical education' now embraces the whole notion of the liberal arts
By David Daintree | September 30th 2022 7:59 PMI took part in a seminar in Melbourne early this week at which parents, teachers, and representatives from Catholic, Protestant, and secular schools came together from around Australia to learn more about what constitutes a classical education. The term classical education has become an important buzz word in conservative circles.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWinners of Souls
Missionaries expended their lives for the betterment of the people they served
By David Daintree | September 20th 2022 2:39 PMJohn Newton began his career as a slave trader. He abandoned the non-conformist Christian faith of his childhood, but the dying embers of his conscience eventually burst into flame again, fanned by the horrors of the trade, so that he turned his back on his past and became a leading…
READ FULL BLOG POST‘Cool’ Christianity
For the Roman missionary taking the Gospel west, his 'Romanitas' was a huge asset
By David Daintree | September 17th 2022 7:38 PMThe part played by Christianity has been neither ancillary nor supplementary but literally essential, for western civilization has been Christian in its very essence. Those who would understand the West cannot sift the Christianity out of it. The honest unbeliever who is a serious student of history and culture will…
READ FULL BLOG POSTA Queen Ever Faithful
As a Christian woman, Elizabeth made a promise on her accession to serve her people
By David Daintree | September 9th 2022 11:50 AMFor many people throughout the whole world the Queen's death comes as a profound shock. Not unexpected, of course, after so long a reign, but cataclysmic in its emotional and social impact. Few people in her realms have lived their lives under the reign of any other sovereign. I am…
READ FULL BLOG POSTConfidence over Gloom
The false 'woke' creed will sooner or later implode under the sheer weight of its own nonsense
By David Daintree | July 25th 2022 1:41 PMThe Dawson Centre’s recent Colloquium, the big event of our year, lived up to our expectations and indeed soared beyond: all presentations were well and evenly matched in their force and relevance. One of our guests said, "Just the one day was more stimulating than my entire undergraduate degree!" Putting…
READ FULL BLOG POSTRudderless Leaders
A culture cannot be maintained without the underpinning of religion
By David Daintree | June 29th 2022 9:20 PMRecently the Christopher Dawson Centre for Cultural Studies hosted Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of The Australian newspaper, who spoke to a capacity crowd on Christianity's Contribution to Western Civilization. Greg is a good friend to the Dawson Centre; he has visited on earlier occasions and always deservedly draws a large audience,…
READ FULL BLOG POST'The Vision Splendid'
Wordsworth's poem reflects on the progress of human life from infancy to maturity
By David Daintree | June 3rd 2022 1:46 PMOne of William Wordsworth's best poems is an ode with the somewhat daunting title Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. It's a reflection on the progress of human life from infancy to maturity. He thinks of children as natural believers, born with an inherent sense of awe at…
READ FULL BLOG POSTVanishing Conservatism
Independent thinkers must contend with hostility from both the left and the right
By David Daintree | May 26th 2022 4:48 PMEdmund Burke described society as “a partnership... between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.” Conservatives feel this keenly, believing they have obligations to generations past and to come. Enemies of conservatism, often driven by deep resentment of traditional values, prefer to…
READ FULL BLOG POST'Exterminating Poverty'
Eugenicist Marie Stopes and her supporters openly stated their aims
By David Daintree | May 12th 2022 2:54 PMLast summer I reviewed an important book about the eugenics movement of 100 years ago, and the subject bears repeating. The book is Mark H. Sutherland's Exterminating Poverty: The true story of the eugenic plan to get rid of the poor, and the Scottish doctor who fought against it. A link…
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