Conservative spotlight: Annette Kirk

Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal

Towering over American conservative thought this century is the figure of Russell Kirk. Perhaps the most philosophically profound thinker that the American conservative movement has ever produced, Kirk attempted to summarize and synthesize the streams of organic thought, as opposed to those based primarily on abstractions, that run through Western civilization.

After Kirk passed away in 1994, his widow. Annette. wanted to continue his legacy. She founded the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal on Jan. 6, 1995. "People's outward lives are doing well." Mrs. Kirk said in a recent interview. referring to the material prosperity of recent years. "But their internal lives. their souls, are just as much in distress."

Unlike some thinkers classified as conservative these days, Kirk recognized the importance of not just freedom but of objective norms.,of,behavior and society's interest in enforcing them. "Conservatives sometimes forget you have to have order," Mrs. Kirk said. "You can't have freedom without order. Part of the mission of the Kirk Center is to remind people of this. We need culture, the land, the church, the family. And most fundamental is transcendence, the understanding and appreciation of a transcendent order. He used transcendence rather than God or Christ to be as broad as possible."

The center continues with the sort of programs that Kirk pursued in his lifetime. He distinguished himself in his place of residence, far removed from the urban centers so preferred by many writers and thinkers. Instead of New York City, Washington, D.C., or even California, Kirk lived in small-town Mecosta, Mich., where his family had lived for decades before him, three hours by car northwest of Detroit.

Annette had to adjust. "I came from New York," she said. "But now I like it better in Michigan. Back when I worked on 5th Avenue, it was very elegant. Now it has changed." In Mecosta, "I have six buildings," she said. "I have a house, a very large house where other people five with me. There is a library, housing for Residential Fellows. "

Residential Fellows, usually graduate students working on their dissertations, live together in community. They have access to Kirk's personal 10,000 volume library. Professors and other scholars conduct seminars or give lectures, and the center generates publications including The University Bookman quarterly. The summer 1999 issue contains reviews of such books as Who Killed Homer? by Victor David Hanson and John Heath, Eros: The Myth of Greek Sexuality by Bruce S. Thornton, The Crowd in the Late Roman Republic by Fergus Millar, and The Devil Knows Latin by E. Christian Kopff.

A pamphlet promoting the Kirk Center features quotes from politicians such as Ronald Reagan and Michigan Gov. John Engler (R.) and a number of fellow conservative thinkers, including William F. Buckley, Jr., and Michael Novak. "Kirk almost single-handedly rooted American conservatism in the rich loam of the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, and thereby gave it the philosophical heft of a worldview, , said William Rusher. "He also gave it its name. This country owes a huge debt of gratitude to Russell Kirk."

Said Reagan, "His intellectual contribution has been a profound act of patriotism. I look forward to the future with anticipation;that his work will continue to exert a profound influence in the defense of our values and our cherished civilization."

Kirk's 1953 The Conservative Mind (Regnery, Seventh Edition 1995) laid out a firm blueprint for the conservative movement that helped inspire a generation of conservative thinkers and activists. And The Roots of American Order (Regnery, Third Edition 1991) demonstrated that America could not survive as America if it abandoned Christianity or its English heritage.

The ultimate unitary principle of Kirk's work and the center's activity, Annette Kirk said, is a traditional understanding of "natural law." Human nature is a certain way, and people must live in accordance with it or face the consequences, she said.

"What we're trying to do at the center is bring people together at the deepest level, philosophical," she said. "It's an academic community, scholars living and working together. And a lot of networking goes on, jobs."

She was excited about the appearance of the first biography of Russell Kirk, a development she hopes will help promote his legacy even more. Written by James E. Person, Jr., Russell Kirk: A Critical Biography of a Conservative Mind (Madison Books, 1999) focuses more on Kirk's thought than on the details of his life. "I want to continue Russell's work," Mrs. Kirk concluded.

The Kirk Center may be reached at PO. Box 4, Mecosta, Mich. 49332 (616-972-7655; fax: 616-9728072; e-mail.- RKCKirk@aolcom).

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Nov 5, 1999
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved