Roger Scruton was the voice of meaning in a rudderless world He often seemed like the voice inside our heads, uniquely able to put into words what we knew to be true, yet could rarely express.

Click here to read the full article. 

For much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a minority of English people became obstinately metaphysical. Some quit these shores, not so much for religious liberty in the abstract, but in the hope of building a more rigorously godly Commonwealth in New England.

The 17th century English Civil War, in which a greater proportion of the male population perished than in the First World War, was fuelled by religious passions. 

Roger Scruton in his 2012 book Our Church identifies this as the seminal period in the creation of the ethos of the Church of England and of what Joseph Addison described in 1712 as the ‘particular bashfulness in everything that regards religion’ on the part of the English people. 

Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website. 

The notion of wisdom, and what constitutes it, seems increasingly less understood, and therefore less appreciated, in our age of imprudence. Wise men—and Sir Roger Scruton was one—have become anachronisms of late, relics of a bygone era. St. Thomas Aquinas described a wise man, using Aristotle’s six attributes, as “a man who knows all things, even difficult things, with certitude, and knowledge of the cause, who seeks science for its own sake, and orders and persuades others.” 

Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website. 

Eternal Lessons from Wagner’s Last Opera By Barnaby Crowcroft

Roger Scruton finds in this 19th-century work an antidote to many of our modern society’s ills.

The publication of Roger Scruton’s Wagner’s Parsifal: The Music of Redemption is itself a thing of some historical significance. This is the last book by one of our most eminent recent philosophers, who died of cancer in January this year, about the last opera by the only composer who can also be considered a philosopher in his own right. Parsifal — which premiered in 1882 — was intended by Wagner to be his “farewell to the world.” Yet it remains one of his least accessible works — and to critics one of his most characteristically tedious.

Read the full review online HERE.

Scrutopia friends, join us for the Alumni meeting from Friday 9th until Wednesday 14th July 2021.

We are thrilled to be able to share with you the Programme for our 2021 event. Please click HERE to download. 

Please apply to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Director of Admissions

One of the most refreshing contributions that Roger Scruton made to an otherwise tired, and largely derailed, discussion of ‘science and religion’ in the last two generations is to avoid that specific heading almost entirely. His tacit refusal to construe a bipolar debate along the current conflictual axes defined by neo-atheism and fundamentalism was, already, a welcome signifier that the field of play is larger, weightier and more complex.

Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website.

Roger Scruton loved hunting (not in the American sense, usually meaning shooting, but in the English sense of hounds chasing a live quarry – in his case, the fox). He wrote that his life had divided into three parts – the first ‘wretched’, the second ‘ill-at-ease’, but ‘in the third, hunting’. 

Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website. 

The Scrutopia summer school offers a ten-day immersion experience in the philosophy and outlook of Sir Roger Scruton, the British writer and philosopher who has inspired many searching people to believe in Western civilisation and its legacy. The course of study, which will take place in and around Sir Roger's home near historic Malmesbury in the Cotswolds, during the summer of 2021. The dates have now been confirmed as Wednesday 28th July through until Friday 6th August. 

We are thrilled to be able to share with you the Programme for our 2021 event. Please click HERE to download. 

The application form can be downloaded HERE.

Please apply to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Director of Admissions

The Scrutopia summer school offers a ten-day immersion experience in the philosophy and outlook of Sir Roger Scruton, the British writer and philosopher who has inspired many searching people to believe in Western civilisation and its legacy. The course of study, which will take place in and around Sir Roger's home near historic Malmesbury in the Cotswolds, during the summer of 2021. The dates have now been confirmed as Wednesday 28th July through until Friday 6th August. 

Accommodation and catering will be provided at The Royal Agricultural University. Each day will begin with a talk followed by a discussion and the evenings will involve concerts, readings, or further discussion over wine. Provisional topics include the nature of philosophy, why beauty matters, freedom and oppression, why music matters, home and belonging, the fading of tradition and understanding wine. We are delighted to be able to share with you the inital programme outline. Please click HERE for the Full Summer School Programme.

The aim is to assemble a group of committed people, with a shared interest in culture and in all that is involved in passing it on. The course will consider all aspects of Sir Roger’s philosophy with sessions lead by guest speakers, visits to local areas of interest and events at Sundey Hill Farm, home to Sir Roger and Sophie Scruton. The programme has not yet been finalised, but to give you a flavour of the experience, I invite you to watch our 2019 Summer School video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsdbnDrvIBE.

The £3000 fee for the course will cover board and lodging and all other costs, apart from travel to and from the event, which will be the responsibility of each participant. A 10% deposit of £300 will be required to secure a place on the course. 

Testimonials
"I feel extremely energized and inspired after this week. I have to say it was rather surreal to step out in the real world again after spending an entire week in an intellectual paradise."

“The gathering of like minded people all invested in making the most of the event made for a very stimulating environment. The international perspective with so many delegates from overseas was a big bonus for me and the ability to make friends across the world added to the experience.”

Please apply to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Director of Admissions for an application form.

Roger Scruton was not only a kind and dear friend to me, but his intellectual work solidified my understanding of the great value of Western civilization and the promise it holds for individuals of all backgrounds. Roger was one of Western civilization’s fiercest defenders. For this he paid a price: he was not part of the academic “in” crowd the way some of his intellectual inferiors were.

Read the full article HERE on the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation website.