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Hello
John,
We are proud to announce that the Kirk Center recently published its first book, David Hein’s engaging Teaching the Virtues ([link removed]) . Education should form both the mind and character. But even very good schools, religious and secular, can do better at teaching the virtues, Dr. Hein believes, and so he has written a valuable primer for teachers and parents alike.
Russell Kirk once asked in one of his most famous essays, “Can Virtue Be Taught?” This new book is an unsurpassed reflection on that ancient question, one capable of renewing education in our time. David Hein shows how to teach students virtues such as prudence, justice, courage, temperance, faith, hope, love, loyalty, and patience.
Richard Brookhiser says, “Teaching the Virtues is a gateway. Enter it for useful and hopeful thoughts about teaching, learning, and life.” And Joe Loconte notes, “This book is a tonic for an age that regards the old virtues with contempt.”
The book is also significant because it is the first title published under the Kirk Center’s new publishing imprint, Mecosta House ([link removed]) . This small press will be dedicated to promulgating the legacy of Russell Kirk, and the tradition he articulated from his beloved Piety Hill in his ancestral village of Mecosta, from which it takes its name.
In the future, we will publish the occasional new edition of classic works by Russell Kirk, essay collections, and new works in the old tradition that will aid us in our educational programs and the new courses we will be introducing online and in-person at the Kirk Center as part of our School of Conservative Studies.
Over time, we hope Mecosta House books will combine with Kirk Center programs to foster a community of readers and thinkers dedicated to exploring the wisdom of our predecessors while forging a new conservative humanism. In all we do, the Kirk Center aims to give each new generation access to the beliefs, practices, and institutions that are the foundation of America’s constitutional achievement in ordered liberty.
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New Criterion editor Roger Kimball observed, “Anyone who has pondered such questions as ‘How should I live my life?’ will be grateful to David Hein for this scintillating and accessible trip through the garden of practical wisdom.”
C. Russell Fletcher says, “This elegantly constructed primer on teaching virtues is a must read for all parents of school-age children.”
Order Teaching the Virtues ([link removed])
Spanish Translation of The Politics of Prudence
Russell Kirk’s book The Politics of Prudence has just been published in a Spanish edition (CEU Ediciones, 2025) ([link removed]) , with an introduction by Lucia Vallejo. A professor at the largest private university in Spain, Lucia was a visiting Fellow at the Kirk Center last summer while writing her dissertation on Robert Nisbet. Lucia has since successfully defended her dissertation and we send our hearty congratulations on both these achievements.
Book Gallery: Called to Freedom
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If America is about anything, it’s about freedom. So we are told. But what does this mean?
The word “freedom” has many different meanings and expressions, depending on whom is speaking. Even Christian theology makes use of the word. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” What does that mean? What does it have to do with freedom as it appears in our cultural discussions? Most of the discussion around freedom obscures the traditional demarcation between liberty and license. Is it for license that Christ has set us free? If not, then for what purpose?
Join us on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 7pm ET for a Book Gallery discussion ([link removed]) with Dr. Bradford Littejohn, Director of Programs and Education at American Compass. Dr. Littlejohn has entered the breach to define this ill-understood concept in light of Christian theology, ethics, and moral teaching.
In Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License, he disentangles the philosophical, political, and theological concepts of freedom to illuminate what the Christian means by freedom, “liberation from the bondage of fear and sin.” Littlejohn begins with the classic Christian understanding of freedom, then turns to the contemporary debates over technology, the market, and religious liberty to demonstrate how a Christian conception of freedom not only may help us navigate our fraught cultural and political times but also provide a compelling vision of living in rightly ordered freedom.
Register for Called to Freedom ([link removed])
Thanks for your continued support and goodwill for the Kirk Center. We look forward to sharing more good news with you this spring, including an exciting conference currently in-the-works which will be held in Grand Rapids this summer.
Yours in ordered liberty,
Jeffrey O. Nelson, Ph.D.
Executive Director & CEO
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