AND LAST THINGS:

Editor's Note: Imaginative Conservative Senior Contributor Peter Augustine Lawler (1951-2017) passed away last night, at the age of sixty-five. Our co-founder, Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, pays tribute to Dr. Lawler below. [...]

Sometime last evening, Professor Peter Lawler passed away. He was sixty-five year old, and he had just started feeling ill on Friday. This news, I will freely admit, hit me hard. Very hard. Only four hours later (as I write this), it's still hitting me hard. Peter had too much to give to the world to be taken so soon. Being a rash and poor Christian, I want to shake my fist at God and ask, "Why?" (For what it's worth, I think God can take a little anger every now and then. He is, after all, pure wisdom and pure mercy.)

I can't state that Peter and I ever became close on a personal level, but I can state with certainty that I had the privilege of being one of his closest allies in this whirligig of a world. I saw Peter frequently over the past two decades, and, each time, we enjoyed each other's company, each other's ideas, and an intellectually solid friendship. He never failed to criticize me when and where I needed criticizing, and he never failed to encourage me when I needed and deserved encouragement. I'm sure that to the end of his days, he thought me a goofy confusion of traditionalism and libertarianism, but he also--rather beautifully in this polarized and corrupt world--took me for what I was and am.

Rather gruff and rumpled-looking throughout his adult life, Peter was absolutely and always his own man. Not from an elite or Ivy League background, Peter nevertheless could have, and often did, run complete circles around his intellectual opponents, many of whom thought themselves superior. An American original and anti-individualist individual, he was the very personification of a healthy academic wit.

A scholar, he was also a vital man of letters. He could write on anything, and he always did so with brilliance. Whether the issue be political, legal, constitutional, diplomatic, scientific, psychological, or pure pop culture, Peter handled every issue with deftness.

As we Imaginative Conservatives very well know, Peter--thank the Good Lord--was one of us. Once, a few years ago, when an unfriendly voice accused our beloved journal of being monolithic in thought, Peter justly, humorously, and publicly tore the objector down. The Imaginative Conservative, he argued, might well be the most ecumenical and diverse online journal for those who refuse to bow to the Left or to mammon.

I only knew Peter as an academic ally and drinking companion over the past two decades, and, I'm devastated by his departure. I would guess that those who knew him as a close friend and colleague are simply beside themselves today. Peter left behind a great deal, however. We have his many books, his many essays, and his great and magnanimous friendship and mentorship.

He was thrilled to have been named editor of Modern Age last fall, and, though I'm biased, I think the one issue he edited that saw print was the best one produced since Russell Kirk edited issue 1 of volume 1, back in the 1950s.

On any given evening when the weather is decent, Rome's Peter Lawler can be found sitting outside one of Broad Street's restaurants dining and quietly watching people walk by. But it's just as likely that he is speaking about political philosophy at an Ivy League school, working on an article for an esteemed political science journal or writing a chapter in his latest book.

Lawler, Dana Professor of Government at Berry College, has been teaching politics and political philosophy for nearly four decades.

Lawler said he's been teaching so long that he doesn't really remember the reasons why he embarked on teaching.

"I don't know. Do I enjoy it?" he said, with a grin. "You enjoy telling the people the same things time and again and it's new to them."

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