Conservative traditionalism

Traditionalist Conservatism, also known as Traditional Conservatism, Traditionalism, Classical Conservatism and (in the United Kingdom and Canada) Toryism, is a political philosophy emphasizing the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy and organic unity, agrarianism, classicism and high culture, and the intersecting spheres of loyalty. Some traditionalists have embraced the labels "reactionary" and "counterrevolutionary", defying the stigma that has attached to these terms since the Enlightenment.

Traditionalism developed throughout the 18th-century Europe (particularly in response to the disorder of the English Civil War and the radicalism of the French Revolution). In the middle of the 20th century it started to organize itself in earnest as an intellectual and political force. This more modern expression of traditionalist conservatism began among a group of U.S. university professors (labeled the "New Conservatives" by the popular press) who rejected the notions of individualism, liberalism, egalitarianism, modernity, and social progress, promoted cultural and educational renewal, and revived interest in the Church, the family, the state, local community, etc.

Belief in natural law and transcendent moral order lay the foundation for traditionalist conservative thought. Reason and Divine Revelation inform natural law and the universal truths of faith. It is through these universal truths of faith that man orders himself and the world around him. Mankind organized society on the basis of these universal truths of faith. The traditionalist holds axiomatic the belief that religion precedes civilization (vide, T. S. Eliot's essays Christianity and Culture). Most traditionalist conservatives embrace High Church Christianity (e.g. T. S. Eliot, an Anglo-Catholic; Russell Kirk, a Roman Catholic; and Rod Dreher, an Eastern Orthodox Christian). Not all traditionalists, however, are High Church Christians. Other traditionalists whose faith traditions are notable include Caleb Stegall, who is an evangelical Protestant. Many conservative mainline Protestants are also traditionalist conservatives, including some of writers for Touchstone Magazine. Many traditionalists are Jewish, such as the late Will Herberg, Irving Louis Horowitz, Mordecai Roshwald, and Paul Gottfried.

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