the New Pantagruel

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

July 22, 2004

The New Pantagruel: Hymns in the Whorehouse

CYBERSPACE - The New Pantagruel, a quarterly electronic journal, is challenging the National Review and the National Review Online to an "all-staff Wing Chun or lumberjack style wrestling match." And that's just the beginning.

The New York Times featured the irreverent web journal in a July 17 front-page article, "Young Right Tries to Define Post-Buckley Future," a roundup of new thinkers who are redefining what "conservative" means. "Conservative is a word that is almost meaningless these days," editor Caleb Stegall says. "It tells you almost nothing about where a person stands on a lot of questions."

Stegall sums up what The New Pantagruel stands for in one word - sustainability: "True conservatism seeks to preserve and sustain local communities of tradition: socially, religiously, politically, economically, and environmentally," he said. "The mainstream political left and right are holding hands under the table in the pursuit of their mutual exploitation and destruction of local particularist beliefs, practices, and places."

As the Times notes, the online publication tackles "subjects as heterodox as the perils of Wal*Mart and urban sprawl, the dangers of unfettered capitalism to family life, and the feared takeover of [conservatism] by hawkish neoconservatives."

Named after the jovial drunkard created by Rabelais, The New Pantagruel is run by a group of self-described "intemperate but friendly Catholics and Protestants." According to editor Stegall, "We saw other electronic journals run by Christians, and we thought that while we might not be able to do better, we could certainly do no worse."

The statement has proved true, as The New Pantagruel recently moved beyond blogger buzz to page A1. While New Pantagruelians - the founders and a talented, diverse slate of contributing editors - certainly do not all identify as being part of the "young right," they are carving a niche for themselves as an intelligent, interesting voice in political and religious discourse.

The New Pantagruel is run by Christians of many stripes, yet its contributors and intended audience are not exclusively Christian. While the journal does not have a doctrinal statement, it does have a manifesto and mission statement, which can be read in the introduction to The New Pantagruel, at www.newpantagruel.com.

The New Pantagruel's manifesto explains its motto, "Hymns in the Whorehouse" as originating from "One fine Pantagruelist of the past century . journalist Malcolm Muggeridge. Muggeridge despised the deadening effect of modern media, and blamed it for many of society's ills. When asked why he participated in an institution with such a baleful influence, Muggeridge replied that he was 'like a piano player in a brothel who plays his best and, from time to time, is able to slip in a few bars of "Abide With Me" for the edification of the patrons.' Such is the goal of The New Pantagruel."

Associate editor Dan Knauss says tNP has chosen open and productive discussion of the major issues of the day "rather than seeking sanctuary in the lockstep arguments of closed dogma and ideology."

Knauss and Stegall launched the website in response to the 2003 demise of the acclaimed re:generation quarterly, an ecumenical journal launched in the 1990s.

What Critics are saying about the New Pantagruel:

"Christianity Today readers will want to read this site not simply because it's 'an irreverent Web site about religion and politics named for the jovial drunkard created by Rabelais' that the [New York] Times is promoting as a kind of new National Review. They'll want to read it because it's more or less the offspring of the now-deceased re:generation quarterly..."

"The New Pantagruel is a new journal that plans to proceed with a 'mirthful temperament towards all that is humane and with frightful anger directed against the forces that would squash such things.' That doesn't make it Catholic, and neither does its mixed editorial board, but there's something about this new journal that aligns it with the most provocative of Catholic ideas. Its forum is a great place to tap into cutting edge debates among young Christian intellectuals."

"A creatively irreverent online journal whose contributors care about the tradition of Christian humanism."

"The fifteenth century [sic] French humanist, Francois Rabelais, seems an unlikely model for Christians in the twenty-first century, but the editors of ... The New Pantagruel think this is just the sensibility we need: 'a certain jollity of mind pickled in the scorn of fortune,' using irony and 'grotesque realism' against the grim determinism of post-modern materialism. ... Opinionated essays, reviews, poetry, and fiction ... should be of particular interest to many Ekklesia Project members."

"I am in love with The New Pantagruel - a fabulous new journal on Christianity and culture."

"A smart, gritty, and winsome online journal."

"Ecumenical journal with incisive writing on all matters of faith and society."

"Shows real promise. Brilliant, accurate."

Caleb Stegall, Editor
Lawrence, KS
caleb@newpantagruel.com

Daniel Knauss, Associate Editor
Milwaukee, WI
dan@newpantagruel.com