Well, not everyone. But most Creed & Culture types are likely to nod their heads in agreement when they hear about a Pandemic of Lunacy, the title of moral philosopher J. Budziszewski’s new book, now available for pre-order on our website. (Save 30% by signing up for email list before you buy!)
The subtitle does a good job denoting what the book is about: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy.
Pandemic of Lunacy consists of thirty short, read-them-in-twenty-minutes chapters about various wrongheaded ideas. Ideas like “each person has his own reality,” human nature is merely animal,” “manhood and womanhood can take any shapes that we wish,” and “all reality is material.” If you have read Budziszewski, you are familiar with the characteristic clarity with which he makes his arguments. Notions that are widely held in our culture are left in shreds by the time he’s done with them. He makes it seem too easy!
I first met J. when I was in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin. I was pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology (why? good question) and heard about the dissidents (J. was but one of three, if I recall) in the philosophy department who defended unpopular positions like the existence of God and the reality of natural law. So I signed up for J.’s moral philosophy course and was duly impressed (I also only got a B—he was a hard grader). We have stayed in touch ever since, and I was honored to have this project float into my purview soon after we got Creed & Culture going.
This is a great book to buy for anyone who wants or needs their moral philosophy in digestible chunks, not to mention an excellent choice anyone who is a little confused in this cultural moment. Budziszewski is sophisticated as he needs to be, but always accessible.
You know who agrees? Dean Koontz, that’s who! Yes, that Dean Koontz. (I guess I’ve buried the lede.) “Pandemic of Lunacy is brilliant, the corrective we need to pull the nation back from the abyss of unreason. Too many elites and intellectuals are saturated with ideologized education that has left them withering in a drought of real knowledge and common sense. Caring guides like J. Budziszewski might bring the best of them back from the realm of false light.”
You know who also agrees? The fantastic Peter Kreeft. “This book is simply the most complete, clear, and uncompromising account of our decaying culture’s insanity that I have read yet.”
Also the brilliant Carl Trueman. “J. Budziszewski offers both a subtle and wide-ranging exposition of the various individual lunacies that make up our corporate social insanity. His is a sober and shrewd voice that offers answers to our malaise. This is a profoundly helpful book for those wanting clarity in our deeply chaotic times.”
And let us not forget the excellent Edward Feser. “Philosophy and science go deeper than what common sense tells us, and sometimes correct it around the edges. But as thinkers like Aristotle and Aquinas knew, sound philosophy and science cannot coherently reject common sense altogether, especially in what it tells us about everyday human life. Modern thought has been plagued by one assault on common sense after another, typically grounded in simple but persistent fallacies. We need books that expose these fallacies and come to the defense of common sense. J. Budziszewski provides exactly that.”
We have a preview of Pandemic of Lunacy up on our website now, and we’ll post excerpts here as the publication date gets closer. Buy early and buy often!
