The Moral Courage of George Andrew Panichas (George PANICHAS: A TRIBUTE‪)‬

As Russell Kirk asserted, "The moral imagination aspires to apprehending of right order in the soul and right order in the commonwealth." (1) The long career of George A. Panichas, who passed away in March 2010, was a testament to the importance of this idea, for in his many books and articles, and in his university teaching and editorship of Modem Age: A Quarterly Review, Panichas labored to defend the ancient truth of "right order" in self and in society. While right order was always the underlying basis of Panichas's thought, his particular interests were many, and he pursued them with an eager and inquisitive mind. A sense of the breadth of his interests can be gained by noting that over a period of fifty years he completed book-length critical studies of Lawrence, Conrad, and Dostoevsky; published a tetralogy of moralist critical studies; edited volumes on politics and literature, including a selection from the writing of Russell Kirk; and wrote frequent social commentaries and reviews. The central purpose around which all of Panichas's writing cohered, however, was a concern with the moral direction of Western civilization. Panichas shared with the great conservative writers and critics of the past--with Conrad, Dostoyevsky, Lawrence, Simone Weil, F. R. Leavis, T. S. Eliot, and others in whom he took a special interest--a particular sense of moral urgency and cultural mission. He was, in one respect, a searcher whose life's work closely resembled that of D. H. Lawrence and Simone Weil; he was also a moralist like Irving Babbitt "preaching the New England virtues of conviction, self-control, and good character." (2) Again like Babbitt, he was one who looked "not only at things but beyond them": (3) beyond immediate cases to first principles, beyond partisan concerns to enduring values, beyond literary disputes of the moment to a deeper understanding of the purposes of criticism. Seeking for answers beyond the fashions of the day, he found them rooted in traditions of thought that are religious in nature. Like all true conservatives, Panichas found himself asking ultimate questions about the purpose of life, the relation of the present to the past, and the relation of man to a transcendent order of belief And like those whom he emulated, he viewed the role of the critic as one that involved weighty responsibilities of courage and judgment. He also understood that these responsibilities could not be carried out in the absence of a genuine state of reverence and humility.