Richard Bastien
Richard Bastien is an Ottawa-based writer whose articles have appeared in various American, French and Canadian publications. He spent most of his career working as an economist in the Canadian Ministry of Finance, specializing in intergovernmental and international finance. Throughout the 1990s, he was Canada's representative in the Paris Club and in the G-7 Group of debt experts. Since his retirement from the public service, he has spent time writing on various economic, social and cultural issues, particularly for the French quarterly journal ÉGARDS. He is former editor-in-chief of Canadian Observer. His articles have appeared in several newspapers and magazines, including C2C, MercatorNet and Crisis magazine. He is a passionate skier and small game hunter.
Bio last modified June 17th, 2021.
Religion Or Reason?
If opposition to abortion is rooted in natural law instead of religious belief, one should be able to show that such opposition existed in societies devoid of Christian influence. The evidence is overwhelming, writes Richard Bastien.
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The Weaponization of Multiculturalism
August 2, 2019The idea of sustained co-existence around a common moral and civic core, Richard Bastien argues, has been dangerously reduced to ideological rejection of unified understanding and the triumphalism of increasingly exclusivist tribal identities.
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Keeping Faith with Philosophy
June 1, 2016The dead ends of post-Enlightenment philosophies, Richard Bastien argues, are truly openings for rediscovering the symbiotic relationship between faith and reason
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The Clash of Moral Systems
August 1, 2015secularists who oppose conscience rights and religious freedoms also seek to impose a moralism that denies faith and defies reason, argues Convivium's Richard Bastien
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Too Far to Bridge
June 1, 2015William Gairdner's The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever Agree is a must-read, argues Convivium book review editor Richard Bastien, for anyone interested in making sense of things as citizens and as ethical beings.
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Cheering Up With Chesterton
April 1, 2015Convivium book review editor Richard Bastien surveys the works of the great G.K. and concludes that true sanity lies in Chestertonian cheerfulness
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A Metaphysical Makeover
December 1, 2014Edward Feser’s effective response to wrong-headed scientism
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Sex and Post-Modern Sophists
October 1, 2014The ancient Greeks had something to tell us about the failure to have children. Alas, 21st century sophists think they were just kidding
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Loving Modern Liberalism to Death
June 1, 2014Richard Bastien reviews Robert R. Reilly’s Making Gay Okay and Brad S. Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation
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The Conversation
December 1, 2013A Christian and an atheist debate faith and fantasy. Fur flies, but friendship deepens
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The Grim Pill of Progress
August 1, 2013Christians invented progress, writes Richard Bastien, but it took modern progessives to separate reason from faith and substitute ideology
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Debunking Moral Skepticism
April 1, 2013If truth equals reality, then relativism is the wrong answer, Richard Bastien argues
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Progressive Liberalism as Civil Religion
November 1, 2012Social conservatism finished? Only in the pipe dreams of those seeking progressive Heaven.
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Reason for Faith
September 1, 2012Faith and reason are the two wings on which the human spirit rises, argues Richard Bastien.
