From Heraclitus forward, Western civilization has understood the imagination as one of our highest faculties of knowing. We know through our mind (rationality) and through our stomach (passions), but it’s the chest (the heart or the soul) that bridges both. In his lecture, Tolkien, "Lewis, Kirk, Mythos, and Logos," Dr. Bradley Birzer will examine the ways in which imagination has shaped conservatism and tradition, especially through the key figures of Russell Kirk, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The namesake of the lecture, famed scholar Russell Kirk (1918–1994), established the philosophical foundations of the modern conservative movement with his landmark books, The Conservative Mind (1953) and The Roots of American Order (1974). He was instrumental in the founding of National Review and Modern Age and was a distinguished fellow of The Heritage Foundation.

Kirk’s political philosophy, summarized in his “six cannons of conservatism,” emphasized tradition and convention, transcendence and piety, political prudence, and ordered liberty. His application of those canons to contemporary issues, through essays, lectures, and newspaper columns, was often provocative and controversial, but always noteworthy. Today, his works and legacy are being preserved and advanced by The Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. The Russell Kirk Lecture Series recognizes eminent thinkers in the tradition of “the father of American conservatism.”

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