It allowed for sovereignty, secularism in the civil sphere and the protection of individual rights. Roger articulated better than anyone that the birth of the nation-state was one of the greatest achievements of Western civilization. For this he paid a price: he was not part of the academic “in” crowd the way some of his intellectual inferiors were. Roger was one of Western civilization’s fiercest defenders. The Bible tells us to weep with those who weep, and I grieve to have lost a man I never met.Roger Scruton was not only a kind and dear friend to me, but his intellectual work solidified my understanding of the great value of Western civilization and the promise it holds for individuals of all backgrounds. Roger Scruton is gone from this world, but his legacy lives on in those of us who’ve donned the mantle he left for us in his writings and life.
#Roger scruton how to#
As he writes in How to Be a Conservative, “Good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created.” Scruton’s conservatism attests that the road less traveled, though longer and more difficult, is the better path. The task for those of us who loved him, who esteem him as an intellectual mentor, is to pass on this legacy.
The posture toward politics and culture that Scruton embodied is, I fear, being forgotten and will one day die out. You don’t have to drop a hammer on your ideological “opponent” in order to do that. He showed us t here is no need to turn a good insight into something more than what it is. But Scruton’s conservatism engenders patience, humility, and compassion toward those with whom we disagree.
If everything is a war, peacetime feels like compromise. Scruton showed us clear conviction does not necessitate anathematizing your opponent or framing every issue as a zero-sum game. In an era of rage and resentment we often deploy concepts we don’t understand. If everything is a war, peacetime feels like compromise.Ĭhristians can see that this disposition-even if you don’t share the political convictions that undergird it-is desperately needed. Scruton showed us clear conviction doesn’t necessitate anathematizing your opponent or framing every issue as a zero-sum game. Society is, as Edmund Burke would say, a contract between the living, the dead, and the yet-to-be-born. Scruton showed us that conservatism is a settled conviction that we’re given certain goods like truth and beauty we ourselves didn’t acquire but are privileged to pass on. Conservatism isn’t primarily about policies, judicial appointments, or legislative achievements. Scruton’s political philosophy-a recent manifestation of a longstanding tradition-understood conservatism to be, first and foremost, a particular posture toward the world around us. While it may galvanize movements and embolden followers, it can’t sustain the kinds of goods necessary to secure and stabilize society. We’re increasingly susceptible to apocalyptic language and conclusions. Kind ConservatismĪdditionally, I’m afraid the loss of Scruton means the erosion of a kinder, gentler conservatism than what is currently on offer. I’m currently writing a book on beauty and have dedicated the work to Scruton.īeauty is a fundamental good, and Scruton is our generation’s best defender of this ancient (and deeply Christian) conviction. Scruton demonstrates beauty isn’t merely in the eye of the beholder, but an essential part of human existence we ignore to our detriment. The goods of creation, their beauty and splendor, will not reveal their glory unless you wait patiently for them. In order to see and love the beauty before us, we must learn to wait for it to show itself, like a beautiful flower that blooms only at a specific time. Scruton devoted his life to a vision of the world that changed my life. Instead, like Scruton taught us, it requires careful study, reflection, and patience. In his wonderful work, Beauty, he observes that beauty “is vanishing from the world because we live as though it did not matter.” The beauty of a painting, musical score, building, or book does not reveal its true self with simplistic bromides or quick analysis.
Defender of Beautyįirst, he opened my eyes and those of so many others to beauty. So why should Christians care about this English philosopher and statesman? Two things stand out.
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