Caleb M. Powers > Recent Status Updates

Woof, this book is long.

The chapter on revolution was better, but still suffers from several misunderstandings about the nature of society, culture, and authority.

Just finished Chapter 7 on "The Prince" and man, what a mess. An inconsistent, contradictory, and largely embarrassing attempt at defining what a civil magistrate is and ought to do. Huge misunderstandings as to the proper place for each sphere of society—family, church, and state—that, if followed, will lead right back to abject statism.

A frustrating and disappointing chapter on civil law from Wolfe here.

Frustrating to see Wolfe minimize the church so much. In a time when the state is encroaching on everything, I'm positive the answer isn't "the church should just focus on the heavenly" (in the way that Wolfe means it).

It's funny, because I'm agreeing with a lot of Wolfe's conclusions about what a Christian culture should be doing, but he continues to unhelpfully conflate "society" and "the civil government."

I appreciate the heart behind the section that serves as the grounding for the chapter on nation—Wolfe's thoughts on sentiment, familiarity, and home are profound and meaningful.

I also like Wolfe coming down on a definition of nation (he defines it as almost a synonym of ethnicity). I largely agree with this definition, but as I read, I find what Wolfe wants to include as natural to that definition overreaching.

Wolfe's Thomistic and Two Kingdoms categories are getting the way of some good nuggets here and there. The problem is those nuggets are rarely consistent with his overall argument, but rather blessed inconsistencies.

I'm also confused as to the audience for this book. It seems far too academic to be of interest to the average Christian, but those familiar with his terminology likely know the info he's presenting.

Wolfe lays out a strong outline for his project in the introduction, and I have to admire its conviction and consistency.

That being said, I have a few major problems so far that I won't have the word count here to expound in detail. Quick summary of my issues:

1. Wolfe is making too many assumptions already without the proper grounding; and
2. Wolfe is erroneously conflating society/nation with civil government.

Getting better, but it's still mostly just giant block quotes strung together.

I was expecting this book to lean more heavily into its gimmick (pretending the reader is having a chat in a pub with Chesterton) and less a giant list of quotations.

Tremendous. Shared a bunch of quotes on my social media , probably too many. Just so many good things said here.

Tremendously excellent so far.

The history of the Romans conquering Germany is fascinating.