tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57958772024-03-05T02:20:04.957-08:00Religion & LibertyJohn Dickinson said in 1776: “Our liberties do not come from the charters; for these are only declarations of preexisting rights. They do not depend on parchment or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth.” Indeed it may be asked whether the American experiment would have been possible, or how well it will succeed in the future, without a deeply rooted vision of divine Providence over the individual and over the fate of nations.” [Pope John Paul II, 1998]Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-73955818114741990292023-06-20T20:35:00.000-07:002023-06-20T20:35:19.117-07:00Jonah Goldberg on Patrick Deneen<blockquote>The truth is that the whole point of the book is much more modest—and underwhelming—than the title and revolutionary-cosplay chapter titles suggest. Whereas, according to political theory, “regime change” means the wholesale replacement of a system of government, usually by force, Deneen’s Regime Change boils down to the idea that we need to replace the existing elites, specifically on the right, with a “New Right” of people who think like Patrick Deneen. Still, there is a tiny threat to the actual regime in his mission statement: “What is needed, in short, is regime change—the peaceful but vigorous overthrow of a corrupt and corrupting liberal ruling class and the creation of a postliberal order in which existing political forms can remain in place, as long as a fundamentally different ethos informs those institutions and the personnel who populate key offices and positions” [italics mine]. In other words, so long as my team is in charge, we can keep the Constitution and all that stuff. I’d find this more worrying if I thought this tiny cadre of reactionary malcontents could get a post-liberal integralist elected dogcatcher.
<p>Regardless, given that today’s New Right is, by my rough count, at least the fifth self-declared New Right since World War II, I find such highfalutin tough talk less worrisome—and less impressive—than the integralists might think. This is a very old story about a very old strategy. A cranky faction of the right decides it has that special gnosis and that they are the only legitimate standard bearers for their side. They denounce the (alleged) holders of power and influence as fakers, RINOs, closet progressives, Me-too Republicans, sell-outs, squishes, wets, and so on in order to claim that history must make room for the new priests of the True Faith. Often, the mainstream media will hype the New Right insurgents to use it as a cudgel against the establishment right they already despise. Not knowing that this attention is purely instrumental and short-lived, these rebels become all the more convinced they have History on their side.
<p>The intellectual history of the right—and left—is replete with such efforts. The orthodoxies and heresies change (somewhat) almost every decade, as do the terms for them. People are declaring Libertarian Moments and Neoconservative Moments and Nationalist Moments all the time. It’s moments all the way down.
<p>Stripped of its disquisitions on Aristotle and Aquinas and oddly envious or trollish allusions to various leftist radicals (one chapter borrows its title from Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? and another from C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite), Regime Change looks more like just another moment where one faction leaps at an opportunity to get to the top of the greasy pole.</blockquote>
<p>-- Jonah Goldberg, <a href="https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-33-number-3/patrick-deneens-otherworldly-regime" target=_blank>Patrick Deneen’s Otherworldly Regime</a>, by Jonah Goldberg. <i>Religion & Liberty</i> Vol. 33, No. 3. A review of Patrick Deneen's <a href="https://amzn.to/3peoxah" target=_blank><i>Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future</i></a> Sentinel (June 6, 2023). Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-38796209795212174222022-01-25T09:34:00.000-08:002022-12-31T09:35:33.747-08:00"The Fallacies of the Common Good", by Kim R. Holmes (New Criterion)<a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-fallacies-of-the-common-good" target=_blank>The fallacies of the common good</a>, by Kim R. Holmes. <i>The New Criterion</i> January 2022:<blockquote>Anyone observing the evolution of conservative thought over the past few years could not have escaped a growing trend. Politicians, intellectuals, and think-tankers are questioning traditional American conservatism’s commitment to limited government, individual natural rights, and economic freedom. They are talking up the virtues of the common good in ways that call into question their commitments to liberty and freedom.
<p>The philosophical questioning of the principles of the American founding is coming from two different factions within the Right. One involves the national conservatives. The other is from philosophers who wish to resurrect the moral organizing principles of natural law. Both reject the idea of “intrinsic” rights that is traditionally associated with the founding.
<p>The fact that these critiques arise from the American Right is significant. American progressivism has long questioned the founding and tried to revise it to suit its purposes. Now it appears members of the Right are doing the same thing. Why? And what are the implications, not only for conservatism but for the American nation?</blockquote>
<p><b>Respondents</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-promise-peril-of-the-political-common-good" target=_blank>The promise & peril of the political common good</a>, by Ryan T. Anderson. <i>On the importance of liberty and rights in the name of the common good.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-original-strategy" target=_blank>The Original Strategy</a>, by Charles R. Kesler. <i>On the flawed arguments in emerging conservative movements.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/yesterdays-man-yesterdays-conservatism" target=_blank>Yesterday’s man, yesterday’s conservatism</a>, by Josh Hammer. <i>On common-good originalism.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-demanding-delicate-task-of-conservatism" target=_blank>The demanding & delicate task of conservatism<a/>, by Daniel J. Mahoney. <i>On rethinking traditional conservatism.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/common-sense-conservatism" target=_blank>Common-sense conservatism</a>, by Robert R. Reilly. <i>On the particular and the universal in politics.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/policies-are-not-principles" target=_blank>Policies are not principles</a>, by R.R. Reno. <i>On the American culture of freedom.</i>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2022/1/the-fallacies-of-the-common-good-a-response" target=_blank>The fallacies of the common good: a response</a>, by Kim R. Holmes. <i>On respect for liberty and natural rights</i>.
</ul>
<p><center>* * *</center><p>
<b>Related</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://newcriterion.com/issues/2021/10/the-appropriation-of-locke" target=_blank>The Appropriation of Locke</a> <i>The New Criterion</i> October 2021.
</ul>
Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-4870346635427201772019-05-31T21:22:00.003-07:002019-07-05T18:29:40.306-07:00Sohrab Amari, "Against David French-ism" <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/05/against-david-french-ism" target=_blank>Against David-Frenchism</a>, by Sohrab Amari. <i>First Things</i> 05/29/19:<blockquote>In March, <i>First Things</i> <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/06/the-future-of-democratic-capitalism" target=_blank>published a manifesto of sorts</a> signed by several mostly youngish, mostly Roman Catholic writers, who argued that “there is no returning to the pre-Trump conservative consensus that collapsed in 2016,” that “any attempt to revive the failed conservative consensus that preceded Trump would be misguided and harmful to the right.”<br />
<p>Against whom, concretely speaking, was this declaration directed?<br />
<p>I don’t claim to speak for the other signatories. But as one of the principal drafters, I have given the question a great deal of thought, both before and since the document’s publication. And I can now say that for me, “Against the Dead Consensus” drew a line of demarcation with what I call David French-ism, after the National Review writer and Never-Trump stalwart.</blockquote><p><b>Further Discussion</b><br />
<ul><li><b>Response</b> <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/david-french-response-sohrab-ahmari/" target=_blank>What Sohrab Ahmari Gets Wrong</a>, by David French. <i>National Review</i> 05/30/19:<blockquote>What is singularly curious about this, and Ahmari’s essay on the whole, is the extent to which it depends on the creation of two fictional people: a fictional David French far weaker than I think I’ve shown myself to be over many years of fighting for conservative causes, and a fictional version of Donald Trump as an avatar of a philosophy that Trump wouldn’t recognize. It is within the framework of these two fictional people that my approach is allegedly doomed to fail and Trump’s approach has a chance to prevail. ...</blockquote><li><a href="https://mereorthodoxy.com/david-frenchism/" target=_blank>David French and the Revolutionary Style in Conservative Journalism</a>, by Jake Meador. <i>Mere Orthodoxy</i> 07/03/19:<blockquote>just as in 2016, when fearful and reactionary conservatives told us to give our support to a man whose life represented the wholesale rejection of divine love, we must be willing to accept a loss of power before we would countenance cynical, consequentialist lines of thought meant to justify some greater good. When our methods of resistance become intelligible to our opponents we have left the path of fidelity. If First Things is going to resist liberalism through laughable misrepresentations of Trump and an increasingly cozy posture to some genuinely scary trends on the American right, then leaving the path of fidelity is precisely what they will end up doing.<br />
<p>“What, then, of political power?” you might ask. Does not the above represent little more than yet another twist on Anabaptist style quietism, a refusal to get one’s hands dirty in the necessary and inevitably messy work of politics?<br />
<p>It does not. Rather, it recognizes that a genuinely Christian political witness is not merely about a certain political content in our ideas, but a particular mode of existing as political beings. To become intelligible to those whose only political standard is the acquisition of power is to give up any political good other than power. It is, then, to give up our quiet confidence that God is at work in the world and that his work will not be advanced by those of us who would eat the king’s food and bow to his idols.</blockquote><li><a href="https://reason.com/2019/05/31/david-french-sohrab-ahmari-conservative-libertarian/" target=_blank>David French Is Right: Classical Liberalism Is the Best Framework for Protecting Religious Freedom</a>, by Robby Soave. <i>Reason</i> 05/31/19. "In which <i>First Things</i> throws a temper tantrum."<br />
<li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/opinion/sohrab-ahmari-conservative.html" target=_blank>The High Church of the Low Blow: Sohrab Ahmari embraces Trump’s sucker punch politics</a>, by Bret Stephens. <i>New York Times</i> 05/31/19. <br />
<li><a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/sohrab-ahmari-vs-david-french/" target=_blank>Sohrab Ahmari Vs. David French</a>, by Rod Dreher. <i>The American Conservative</i> 05/31/19:<blockquote>I don’t have Ahmari’s faith in smashmouth right-wing politics of the Trumpian sort. David French’s fundamental decency as a man and as a Christian is not a fault, but a feature. I don’t get why his decency and honor is a liability. If we lose that for the sake of winning political battles, are we not at grave risk of having sold our souls?</blockquote><li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/david-french-and-sohrab-ahmari-what-are-we-debating/" target=_blank>David French and Sohrab Ahmari: What Are We Debating?</a>, by Ramesh Ponnuru. <i>National Review</i> 05/31/19.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/david-french-ism-without-david-french/" target=_blank>‘David French–ism’ without David French</a>, by J.J. McCullough. <i>National Review</i> 05/31/19. "French has been unfairly caricatured — but the caricature is worth defending."<br />
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-23669623515273107332018-09-21T23:48:00.000-07:002019-12-23T21:17:47.694-08:00Thomas G. West: "The Political Theory of the American Founding"<a href="https://amzn.to/2zmQWy5" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/liberalism/west_american_founding.jpg" width="200" border="0" align="right"></a><a href="https://amzn.to/2zmQWy5" target=_blank>The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom</a><br />
by Thomas G. West<br />
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 3, 2017). 428 pp.<p><div style="font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">This book provides a complete overview of the American Founders' political theory, covering natural rights, natural law, state of nature, social compact, consent, and the policy implications of these ideas. The book is intended as a response to the current scholarly consensus, which holds that the Founders' political thought is best understood as an amalgam of liberalism, republicanism, and perhaps other traditions. West argues that, on the contrary, the foundational documents overwhelmingly point to natural rights as the lens through which all politics is understood. The book explores in depth how the Founders' supposedly republican policies on citizen character formation do not contradict but instead complement their liberal policies on property and economics. Additionally, the book shows how the Founders' embraced other traditions in their politics, such as common law and Protestantism.</div><p><b>Reviews and Discussion</b><br />
<ul><li><a href="https://www.newcriterion.com/issues/2018/6/founding-philosophy-9855" target=_blank>Founding philosophy</a>, by Michael Anton. [Review]. <i>The New Criterion</i> June 2018:<blockquote>West sets for himself the seemingly modest task of “explaining” the American founders’ political views—first, their political theory per se, and second, how they applied that theory to the practical task of building a new government. The qualifier is necessary because while we think we understand the founding, West shows that we—especially, all too often, those who’ve been specifically trained to explain it to others—do not.</blockquote><li><a href="https://www.lawliberty.org/book-review/a-partial-vindication-of-thomas-west/" target=_blank>A Partial Vindication of Thomas West</a>, by James Stoner. <i>Law and Liberty</i> 12/11/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-founders-in-full/" target=_blank>The Founders in Full</a>, by Vincent Phillip Munoz. <i>Claremont Review of Books</i> 10/19/17:<blockquote>By reintroducing the moral underpinnings of the founders’ natural rights republic, Thomas West has made an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of American political thought. He shows that the founders’ <i>republicanism</i> is a part of their <i>liberalism</i>; that duties and rights, properly understood, are not at odds. In doing so, The Political Theory of the American Founding not only helps us better understand America’s principles, it explains why we ought to cherish them and fight to restore them to their rightful place in our political life.</blockquote><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRP8OZIfY44" target=_blank>Roundtable on <i>The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom</i> by Thomas G. West</a>. Hillsdale College. 09/19/17. <b>[Video]</b><br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/06/19508/" target=_blank>Making Sense of the Founders: Politics, Natural Rights, and the Laws of Nature</a> by Justin Dyer. <i>Public Discourse</i>> 06/09/17.<blockquote>[West argues] that the founders did in fact share a “theoretically coherent understanding” of politics rooted in natural rights philosophy. Other traditions were of course present, but the founders, West insists, embraced these other traditions in their official public documents and pronouncements only to the extent that those traditions could be enlisted as allies of the natural rights philosophy. When natural rights conflicted with elements of the common law, customary practices, or religious tradition, it was the natural rights tradition that won the day. Public documents and the affairs of state—rather than sermons, commentaries, private letters, or other musings—“point to natural rights and the laws of nature as the lens through which politics is understood.”[...]<p><i>The Political Theory of the American Founding</i> does a wonderful job of correcting some of the caricatures of the political thought of eighteenth-century Americans as amoral, areligious, individualistic, or otherwise hostile to public virtue and the moral conditions of freedom. The key, for West, is recognizing that the founders distinguished the purpose of politics (securing rights) from the purpose of life (happiness), and the founders created a society that remained open to the private pursuit of nobility, wisdom, piety, and the higher goods that were supposedly sublimated by the founders into the base pursuit of material gain.<br />
<p>Throughout, West leaves open the question whether the founders’ philosophy is <i>true</i>. I venture a preliminary answer: yes, for the most part, but only because they were buoyed by those other traditions—notably Christianity, the common law, and elements of classical theological natural law—and thereby built better than they knew.</blockquote></ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-51254589158155942652018-08-24T18:50:00.002-07:002018-08-24T18:50:52.464-07:00Debating Integralism<ul><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/08/22317/" target=_blank>In Defence of Catholic Integralism</a>, by Thomas Pink. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 08/12/18. "States that do not recognize both natural law and the transformation of law and public reason brought about by the raising of religion to a supernatural good will become confessors of false belief opposed to Christianity, and their great power will turn from supporting Christianity to opposing or even repressing it, especially in relation to its moral teaching."<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/07/22105/" target=_blank>Integralism and Catholic Doctrine</a>, by Robert T. Miller. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 07/15/18. Catholics today are not required to believe in a Catholic confessional state. If anything, they are required to believe that everyone has a right under the natural law to religious freedom, that the state has no authority in religious matters, and that coercion of religious activity by the state is morally wrong. In short, integralism is contrary to Catholic doctrine.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/06/21542/" target=_blank>Can States "Confess" Religious Belief? Should They?</a>, by Christopher O. Tollefsen. 06/05/18. The confessing state exceeds the limits of its authority, either by acting to no good effect, or by acting contrary to good effect. Thus, the confessing state seems inappropriate as a matter not simply of prudence, but of principle.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/05/21405/" target=_blank>The Catholic Church, the State, and Liberalism</a>, by Joseph G. Trabbic. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 05/02/18. "According to previous papal teaching, a Catholic confessional state is the ideal, even if in most modern situations it’s not a practical possibility, and prudence would steer us away from it. That teaching continues to be normative for Catholics."<br />
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-74577148585588127282018-02-19T14:23:00.007-08:002020-12-06T14:27:23.048-08:00Richard M. Reinsch II: "Full-Spectrum Reason"<blockquote>It is in this intellectual-moral-cultural space that the autonomous liberal individualism and the “naked reason,” which are what Deneen is most concerned with, is able to do its damaging work. But as <a href="https://isi.org/leo-strauss-and-benedict-xvi-crisis-west" target=_blank>Nathan Schlueter insightfully noted</a> in an essay comparing the thought of Pope Benedict and Leo Strauss, for all of the former’s criticisms of the modern undermining of human reason, and with it our ability to access the metaphysical depth of the human condition, Pope Benedict never turned his back on liberalism or the Enlightenment <i>tout court</i>. There is no "putting the clock back to the time before the Enlightenment and rejecting the insights of the modern age," whose "positive aspects . . . are to be acknowledged unreservedly."
<p>
Pope Benedict sought to engage liberalism with a record of Western achievement rooted in the Socratic dialogues of classical philosophy and in the analogy of being found in medieval philosophy, whose import is to show the complex but real connection between the soul of the person and the personal God of the biblical tradition. Liberalism is, ultimately, an attempt to limit power and to bind its necessary use with a promise of fidelity to a fundamental document, a set of claims, a constitution that forms and animates political life. Liberalism protects the relational human person — who has economic, familial, political, and religious dimensions to his being — from rationalist ideology or the claims of sheer bigotry.
<p>
This relational person who is open to the full truth of what it means to be a human person is the being that liberalism at its best is designed to protect and to nurture. However, liberalism is also an inheritance, one that incorporates the best achievements in the full record of Western theological, philosophical, political, and legal excellences. We must always engage liberalism with "the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur," as Pope Benedict reminded us at Regensburg. We should have gratitude, respect, and piety for our liberal democratic traditions and shore these up where they are faltering rather than pine for a premodern past. The clock for liberalism did not begin with Hobbes’s Leviathan, and Justice Anthony Kennedy will not tell its final story. But to ensure that will be the task of those fully engaged with the Western corpus of philosophy, theology, law, politics and the living tradition that holds this together and provides for new applications.</blockquote>
<p>Richard M. Reinsch II, <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/in-defense-of-full-spectrum-liberalism/" target=_blank>In Defense of Full-Spectrum Liberalism</a> 02/19/18.Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-41299508466626173702018-01-20T20:31:00.004-08:002020-12-06T14:30:59.402-08:00Patrick J. Deneen: "Why Liberalism Failed"<img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/deneen_liberalism.jpg" border="0" width="180" align="right" hspace="10"><a href="https://amzn.to/2IdB2e6" target=_blank>"Why Liberalism Failed"</a><br />
by Patrick J. Deneen<br />
Yale University Press (January 2018).<blockquote>Of the three dominant ideologies of the twentieth century—fascism, communism, and liberalism—only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism’s proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history. Here, Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success is generating its own failure.</blockquote><p><b>Reviews and Related Articles</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/did-liberalism-fail/" target=_blank>Did Liberalism Fail?</a> [Panel discussion]
<li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/book-review-why-liberalism-failed-patrick-deneen/" target=_blank>We Still Need Liberalism</a>, by Christian Alejandro Gonzalez. <i>National Review</i> 06/22/18. "Patrick Deneen’s critique of liberalism exhibits an undue nostalgia for the past and ingratitude for the virtues of the present."<br />
<li><a href="https://nationalinterest.org/feature/autopsy-why-liberalism-failed-26267" target=_blank>An Autopsy: Why Liberalism Failed</a>, by Daniel McCarthy. <i>National Interest</i> 06/14/18.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/in-defense-of-full-spectrum-liberalism/" target=_blank>In Defense of Full-Spectrum Liberalism</a>, by Richard M. Reinsch. <i>National Review</i> 02/18/18.
<li><a href="https://home.isi.org/why-liberalism%E2%80%99s-critics-fail" target=_blank>Why Liberalism’s Critics Fail</a>, by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. <i>Modern Age</i> <br />
<li><a href="https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/against-the-deformations-of-liberalism/" target=_blank>Against the Deformations of Liberalism</a>, by David Corey. <i>American Affairs</i> <br />
<li><a href="https://quillette.com/2018/02/12/has-liberalism-failed/" target=_blank>Has Liberalism Failed?</a>, by Patrick Lee Miller. <i>Quillette</i> 02/12/18. <br />
<li><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/02/05/liberalisms-failure-and-its-success/" target=_blank>Liberalism's Failure - and It's Success</a>, by David French. <i>National Review</i> 02/05/18: "As a critique of the godless libertinism of the modern West, Deneen’s book is devastating. As a critique of the American Founding, it’s far less convincing."<br />
<li><a href="https://www.crisismagazine.com/2017/patrick-deneen-explains-liberalism-failed" target=_blank>Patrick Deneen Explains <i>Why Liberalism Failed</i></a>, by Jerry D. Salyer. <i>Crisis Magazine</i> 11/16/17. <br />
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-30452068601529355292017-10-30T18:30:00.001-07:002018-08-24T18:48:09.582-07:00"Conserving America?: Essays on Present Discontents" by Patrick J. Deneen<a href="http://amzn.to/2gPSPcJ" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/conserving_america.jpg" width="200" align="right" vspace="10" hspace="10" border="0"></a><a href="http://amzn.to/2gOxGiT">Conserving America?: Essays on Present Discontents (Dissident American Thought Today)</a><br />
by Patrick J. Deneen.<br />
<br />
St. Augustines Press; 1 edition (November 30, 2016)<br />
<div style="font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">"Opinions about America have taken a decisive turn in the early part of the 21st century. Some 70% of Americans believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction, and half the country thinks that its best days are behind it. Most believe that their children will be less prosperous and have fewer opportunities than previous generations. Evident to all is that the political system is broken and social fabric is fraying, particularly as a growing gap between wealthy haves and left-behind have-nots increases, a hostile divide widens between faithful and secular, and deep disagreement persists over America's role in the world. Wealthy Americans continue to build gated enclaves in and around select cities where they congregate, while growing numbers of Christians compare our times to those of the late Roman empire, and ponder a fundamental withdrawal from wider American society into updated forms of Benedictine monastic communities. The signs of the times suggest that much is wrong with America. This collection of thematic essays by Notre Dame political theorist and public intellectual Patrick Deneen addresses the questions, is there something worth conserving in America, and if so, is America capable of conservation? Can a nation founded in a revolutionary moment that led to the founding of the first liberal nation be thought capable of sustaining and passing on virtues and practices that ennoble? Or is America inherently a nation that idolizes the new over the old, license over ordered liberty, and hedonism over self-rule? Can America conserve what is worth keeping for it to remain--or even become--a Republic?"<br />
</div><p><b>Extended Debate: Robert R. Reilly and Patrick Deneen</b><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2017/10/did_the_founder_build_better_o.html" target=_blank>Did the Founders Build Better or Worse Than They Knew?</a>, by Jeffrey S. <i>What's Wrong With The World</i> 10/29/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/10/20245/" target=_blank>Fools or Scoundrels? A Response to Patrick Deneen</a>, by Robert R. Reilly. <i>Public Discourse</i> 10/16/17. "To suppose that the Founders set up a republic to vitiate the virtue on which its existence depended requires the belief that they were either stupid (by creating a Hobbesian regime and not noticing) or immoral (by doing it while cleverly lying about what they were doing)." The first in a two-part series.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/10/20172/" target=_blank>Christianity and American Founding Principles: A Response to Patrick Deneen and Robert Reilly</a>, by S. Adam Seagrave. <i>Public Discourse</i> 10/3/17. "When it comes to Christianity, the Enlightenment, and the American Founding, Patrick Deneen and Robert Reilly are both right."<br />
<li><a href="" target=_blank>Corrupting the Youth? A Response to Reilly</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 09/19/17. "There is no distinctive Catholic political philosophy today, and Robert Reilly’s call to man the battlements of classical liberalism is an attempt to short-circuit the possibility of a real revival of Catholic political thought in America."<br />
<li><a href="http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/for-god-and-country1/" target=_blank>For God and Country</a> by Robert Reilley. <i>Claremont Review of Books</i> 07/31/17.<br />
</ul><center>* * *</center><p><b>Reviews and Related Discussions</b> <ul><li><a href="http://www.libertylawsite.org/2017/02/15/america-whats-left-of-it-a-conversation-with-patrick-deneen/" target=_blank>America, What’s Left of It: A Conversation with Patrick Deneen</a>. Patrick Deneen joins this edition of Liberty Law Talk to discuss his latest book, <a href="http://amzn.to/2gPSPcJ" target=_blank>Conserving America? Essays on Present Discontents</a>. <i>Law and Liberty</i> February 2015.<br />
<li><a href="https://voegelinview.com/conserving-america-essays-present-discontents/" target=_blank>Review: <i>Conserving America? Essays on Present Discontents</i></a>, by Lee Trepanier. <i>Voegelin View</i> 08/24/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/05/conserving-america-recovering-practice-political-theory-brian-jones.html" target=_blank>Conserving America: On the Recovery of Political Theory</a>, by Brian Jones. <i>The Imaginative Conservative</i> 05/23/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/a-true-conservative-tradition-a-long-read-qa-with-patrick-deneen/" target=_blank>Conservatism in America: A long-read Q&A with professor of political thought Patrick Deneen</a>, with James Pethokoukis. American Enterprise Institute. 06/29/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.kirkcenter.org/bookman/article/on-not-conserving-liberalism" target=_blank>On Not Conserving Liberalism</a>, by Mark Mason <i>The University Bookman</i> Winter 2017.<br />
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-2575630151966666492017-08-21T21:21:00.002-07:002018-09-21T23:54:04.149-07:00Mark Lilla's "The Once and Future Liberal"<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Once-Future-Liberal-Identity-Politics/dp/0062697439/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1503368425&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+lilla&linkCode=li3&tag=christopsweb&linkId=97224360ca24a433b74756005d0a27d4" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0062697439&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=christopsweb" align="right"></a><a href="http://amzn.to/2vYTYFw" target=_blank>The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics</a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=li3&o=1&a=0062697439" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;"/><br />
<br />
by Mark Lilla.<br />
<br />
Harper (August 15, 2017). 160 pages.<br />
<blockquote>In <a href="http://amzn.to/2vYTYFw" target=_blank><i>The Once and Future Liberal</i></a>, Mark Lilla offers an impassioned, tough-minded, and stinging look at the failure of American liberalism over the past two generations. Although there have been Democrats in the White House, and some notable policy achievements, for nearly 40 years the vision that Ronald Reagan offered—small government, lower taxes, and self-reliant individualism—has remained the country’s dominant political ideology. And the Democratic Party has offered no convincing competing vision in response.<br />
<p>Instead, as Lilla argues, American liberalism fell under the spell of identity politics, with disastrous consequences. Driven originally by a sincere desire to protect the most vulnerable Americans, the left has now unwittingly balkanized the electorate, encouraged self-absorption rather than solidarity, and invested its energies in social movements rather than in party politics. <br />
<p>With dire consequences. Lilla goes on to show how the left’s identity-focused individualism insidiously conspired with the amoral economic individualism of the Reaganite right to shape an electorate with little sense of a shared future and near-contempt for the idea of the common good. In the contest for the American imagination, liberals have abdicated.<br />
<p>Now they have an opportunity to reset. The left is motivated, and the Republican Party, led by an unpredictable demagogue, is in ideological disarray. To seize this opportunity, Lilla insists, liberals must concentrate their efforts on recapturing our institutions by winning elections. The time for hectoring is over. It is time to reach out and start persuading people from every walk of life and in every region of the country that liberals will stand up for them. We must appeal to – but also help to rebuild – a sense of common feeling among Americans, and a sense of duty to each other.<br />
<p>A fiercely-argued, no-nonsense book, enlivened by Lilla’s acerbic wit and erudition, The Once and Future Liberal is essential reading for our momentous times.</blockquote><p><b>Reviews and Discussion</b><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/mark-lilla-vs-identity-politics/" target=_blank>Mark Lilla Vs. Identity Politics</a> Interview with Rod Dreher. <i>The American Conservative</i> 08/16/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2017/winter/conversation/chat-mark-lilla-about-those-who-think-history-has-gone-course" target=_blank>A Chat with Mark Lilla about Those Who Think “History Has Gone Off Course”</a>, by David Skinner. <i>Humanities</i> Winter 2017 | Volume 38, Number 1.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/8/15/16089286/identity-politics-liberalism-republicans-democrats-trump-clinton" target=_blak>Debating the liberal case against identity politics</a> Vox.com. 08/15/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/138943/enduring-importance-identity-liberalism" target=_blank>The Enduring Importance of Identity Liberalism</a>, by Lovia Gyarkye. <i>The New Republic</i> 11/22/16.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/liberals-woes-run-deep-but-the-way-out-is-murky/2017/08/18/14d81e3c-7235-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?utm_term=.a223a5856718" target=_blank>Liberals’ woes run deep, but the way out is murky</a>, by Arlie Russell Hochschild. <i>Washington Post</i> 08/18/17.<br />
</ul><p><center><table><tr> <td width="33%" valign="top"><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reckless-Mind-Intellectuals-Politics-Revised/dp/1681371162/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1503375536&sr=8-4&keywords=mark+lilla&linkCode=li2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=ec6695937b9b3b2872ad9cb9584d2d24" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1681371162&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=christopsweb" ></a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=li2&o=1&a=1681371162" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
</td> <td width="33%" valign="top"><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stillborn-God-Religion-Politics-Modern/dp/1400079136/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1400079136&pd_rd_r=QPK8DE131GHSY2NX5G0T&pd_rd_w=bcrBm&pd_rd_wg=CEoWR&psc=1&refRID=QPK8DE131GHSY2NX5G0T&linkCode=li2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=3b98e8dcb4eaf7777cc2c662447e9931" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1400079136&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=christopsweb" ></a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=li2&o=1&a=1400079136" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
</td> <td width="33%" valign="top"><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shipwrecked-Mind-Political-Reaction/dp/1590179021/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503375596&sr=1-2&linkCode=li2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=4948befaf8dac10da93c7c898b7270a7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1590179021&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=christopsweb" ></a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=li2&o=1&a=1590179021" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
</td> </tr>
</table></center>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-73753055675349723252017-02-17T11:40:00.000-08:002017-05-29T11:59:06.124-07:00Michael Novak 1933-2017, Requiescat in pace<center><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/michael_novak_rip.jpg" border="0"></center><p>From his daughter, Jana Novak:<blockquote>As many of you may have heard by now, dad aka Michael Novak, died peacefully early this morning from complications from colon cancer, at his apartment in DC surrounded by family.</blockquote><p><ul><li><a href="https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2017/02/25/homily-funeral-mass-of-michael-novak/" target=_blank>Homily: Funeral Mass of Michael Novak</a>. Father Derek Cross. 02/25/17.<br />
</ul><p><div style="background-color: #EAEAEA; border: solid 2px #CC0000; padding: 10px; text-align: left"><h3>Before he died ... Michael Novak was heard to say, repeatedly, to everyone who came to say goodbye, "God loves you and you must love one another, that is all that matters." - Robert Royal</h3></div><p><b>Reflections on Novak’s passing</b> <p>[This post will be continually updated in the weeks to come] <ul><li><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2017/03/20/the-late-michael-novak-who-helped-bring-down-the-soviet-union-had-unusual-insights-on-business/#6fe2143b551b" target=_blank>The Late Michael Novak, Who Helped Bring Down The Soviet Union, Had Unusual Insights On Business</a>, by Steve Forbes. <i>Forbes</i> 03/28/17. <br />
<li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/michael-novak-dead-catholic-scholar.html" target=_blank>Michael Novak, Catholic Scholar Who Championed Capitalism, Dies at 83</a> <i>New York Times</i><br />
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/michael-novak-theologian-who-made-a-spiritual-case-for-capitalism-dies-at-83/2017/02/17/fa38989c-f212-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.63f1339282e0" target=_blank>Michael Novak, theologian who made a spiritual case for capitalism, dies at 83</a> <i>Washington Post</i> 02/17/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2017/02/in-memoriam-michael-novak" target=_blank>In Memoriam: Michael Novak</a>, by R.R. Reno. <i>First Things</i> "First Thoughts" 02/22/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2017/02/20/remembering-michael-novak/" target=_blank>Remembering Michael Novak</a>, by Hadley Arkes, Michael Pakaluk, and Robert Royal <i>The Catholic Thing</i> 02/20/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/michael-novak-r.i.p./article/2615335" target=_blank>Michael Novak, R.I.P.</a>, by Michael Barone. <i>Washington Examiner</i> 02/20/17. <br />
<li><a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/michael-novak-noted-theologian-philosopher-and-author-dies-83" targt=_blank>Michael Novak, noted theologian, philosopher and author, dies at 83</a> Catholic News Service / <i>National Catholic Reporter</i> 02/20/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/blog/cgress/the-hidden-legacy-of-michael-novak-1933-2017" target=_blank>The Hidden Legacy of Michael Novak (1933-2017)</a>, by Carrie Gress. <i>National Catholic Register</i> 02/22/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2017/02/18719/" target=_blank>Michael Novak: Catholic, American Patriot, and Lover of Liberty</a>, by Samuel Gregg. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 02/19/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/in-memoriam-michael-novak" target=_blank>In Memoriam: Michael Novak</a>, by Robert Royal. <i>National Catholic Register</i> 02/18/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Blog/5436/michael_novak_rest_in_peace.aspx" target=_blank>Michael Novak, Rest in Peace</a>, by Jay Richards. <i>Catholic World Report</i> 02/17/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/religion/320297-how-michael-novak-changed-my-life-and-yours" target=_blank>How Michael Novak changed my life, and yours</a>, by Fr. Robert Sirico. <i>The Hill</i> 02/19/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/18/michael-novak-taught-a-generation-of-catholics-that-capitalism-can-be-virtuous/?utm_term=.859321f4e165" target=_blank>Michael Novak taught a generation of Catholics that capitalism can be virtuous</a>, by Andreas Widmer. <i>Washington Post</i> 02/18/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://cruxnow.com/commentary/2017/02/19/michael-novak-true-american-gentleman/" target=_blank>Why Michael Novak was a true American gentleman</a>, by Andreas Widmer. <i>Crux</i> 02/19/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/michael-novak-in-memoriam/" target=_blank>In Memoriam: Michael Novak, 1933-2017</a> Noah Rothman. <i>Commentary</i> 02/17/17. “Celebrating the memory and work of an intellectual giant.”<br />
<li><a href="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic-thinker-michael-novak-remembered-with-gratitude-11767/" target=_blank>Catholic Thinker Michael Novak remembered with gratitude</a> Catholic News Agency 02/17/17.<br />
<li><a href="https://www.aei.org/publication/aei-mourns-the-loss-of-michael-novak/" target=_blank>AEI mourns the loss of Michael Novak</a> Arthur C. Brooks. American Enterprise Institute. 02/17/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.cua.edu/news/2017/michael-novak.html" target=_blank>Catholic University Remembers Michael Novak as Influential Thinker, Prolific Writer, and Beloved Mentor</a> <br />
<li><a href="https://www.city-journal.org/html/soul-democratic-capitalism-15026.html" target=_blank>The Soul of Democratic Capitalism</a> Brian C. Anderson. <i>City Journal</i> 02/17/17.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445026/michael-novak-death-life-american-catholic-social-tought-scholar-teacher-george-weigel" target=_blank>Remembering Michael Novak</a>, by George Weigel. <i>National Review</i> 02/17/17.<br />
</ul><p><center><table><tr> <td width="25%" valign="top"><br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-One-Sees-God-Believers/dp/0385526105/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=44a844cc8dbfc345473426c6dee8d481" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0385526105&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=christopsweb" ></a><img src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=li2&o=1&a=0385526105" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /></td> </tr>
</table></center>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-83640254146200660762015-04-25T14:17:00.004-07:002015-04-25T14:17:46.039-07:00Critical Reviews of Matthew Stewart's "Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic"In <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/july-web-only/founding-may-not-have-been-christian-but-it-sure-wasnt-secu.html" target=_blank>America's Founding May Not Have Been Christian, but It Sure Wasn't Anti-Christian</a>, Robert Tracy McKenzie, chair of the Department of History at Wheaton College, reviews Matthew Stewart's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393064549/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0393064549&linkCode=as2&tag=greatwarfilms0d-20&linkId=KCK6IEOEWSXR2UQF"><i>Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic</i></a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=greatwarfilms0d-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0393064549" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. (<i>Christianity Today</i> 07/03/14):<blockquote>... I'll leave it to the philosophers to evaluate whether Stewart has exaggerated the underlying atheism of this cast of characters. (His portrayal of Locke, at least, is sure to arouse controversy.) As a historian, I am more concerned by his utter failure to establish the influence of atheistic belief on America's founding. Historians believe that our most important task is to explain what we see, basing our statements of cause and effect on evidence. Stewart takes a different approach. He concludes that radical philosophy was widespread among common Americans after discovering it in the writings of two individuals, Vermont's backwoods leader Ethan Allen and a Boston physician named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Young_(American_revolutionary)" target=_blank>Thomas Young</a>. In like manner, he finds that atheistic presuppositions determined the political philosophy of the most prominent Founders by ruthlessly disregarding all competing influences. <i>This is pronouncement, not demonstration</i>.</blockquote>McKenzie <a href="https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com/tag/matthew-stewart/" target=_blank>comments further, on his own blog</a>, <i>Faith and American History</i>:<blockquote>Although Stewart cloaks his argument in a 400-page narrative, the heart of his reasoning boils down to a simple syllogism: The ideas that matter in history are the ones that are true. Religious beliefs are, by definition, false. Ergo (philosophers say <i>ergo</i> a lot), religious beliefs couldn’t have mattered in the American founding. If lots of colonists back in ’76 thought otherwise, that’s because they weren’t as enlightened as the author. Too bad for them.<br />
<p>The thrust of my review was to call attention to Stewart’s <i>a priori</i> assumptions and to remind readers of historians’ quaint belief that historical assertions should be grounded in historical evidence. Stewart is correct to point out that the religious beliefs of many of the leading Founders were unorthodox, David Barton’s wish-dreams to the contrary notwithstanding. But Stewart errs badly in equating the views of the leading Founders with atheism, and he provides almost no evidence at all for his insistence that radical philosophy was widespread among the rank and file of colonial patriots. <i>In short, the emperor has no clothes</i>.</blockquote>Matthew Stewart, a self-identified atheist, professed in an interview with the <i>Boston Globe</i> that he'd "<a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/07/04/questioning-america-christian-roots/XVNKjkViIzncq9Rr9T7DMM/story.html" target=_blank>like the United States to become what it was always meant to be, which is a secular nation</a> — more publicly committed to reason, to improving understanding, and promoting education", <i>sans</i> traditional orthodox religiosity of any kind. Curiously, notes McKenzie,<blockquote>for a study that is so determined to discredit orthodox Christianity, the author is curiously averse to engaging Christian scholars, whether historians or theologians. When it comes to the religious beliefs of the revolutionary generation, quite a number of Christian historians have anticipated much of Stewart’s findings, albeit with vastly greater nuance and balance, but you’d never know it from his account.</blockquote>Elsewhere, Baron Swaim (<i>Wall Street Journal</i>) deems that <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-natures-god-by-matthew-stewart-independence-by-thomas-p-slaughter-1406320774" target=_blank>"Mr. Stewart's learning in philosophical radicalism is impressive; what undermines his work is his contempt for everyone but the few radicals he esteems."</a> And Charles W. Cooke (<i>National Review</i>) <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/387000/no-original-tea-partier-was-not-atheist-charles-c-w-cooke" target=_blank>corrects Stewart's mistaken charge that "the first Tea-Partier was an atheist."</a><br />
<p><center>* * *</center><p><b>Update</b><p><p>Mark David Hall has published <a href="http://americancreation.blogspot.com/2015/04/hall-on-stewarts-natures-god.html" target=_blank>a rather devastating review of <i>Nature's God</i></a> for the Spring 2015 issue (pp. 285-291) <i>Christian Scholars Review</i> entitled "A Failed Attempt at Partisan Scholarship", which is reposted to the blog <i>American Creation</i>. He concludes:<blockquote>... Stewart regularly makes sweeping statements that leave the impression America’s founders were radical deists who wanted to create a godless republic, but he occasionally offers the qualification that many Americans were traditional Christians and that intellectual traditions not antithetically opposed to Christianity may have had some influence as well (e.g. 32, 352). But these qualifications are too few, faint, and far between. By focusing on a handful of founders with radical religious views, some important—Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine—and others relatively unimportant—Allen and Young—he grossly distorts the founders’ religious views and political commitments. Even brief consideration of a wider range of founders reveals a very different picture.<sub>*</sub><br />
<p>[...]<br />
<p><i>Nature’s God</i> suffers from a number of serious flaws. Stewart virtually ignores the vast literature on the role of religion in the American founding and he utterly fails to engage scholars whose works challenge his thesis. He misuses and misconstrues primary sources and largely ignores founders (key and otherwise) who do not fit his thesis. Alan Ryan, in a friendly blurb, describes the book as “partisan scholarship.” It seems to me that Ryan is half right. Readers interested in a polemical account of religion in the American founding almost completely ungrounded in history may enjoy this book, but anyone interested in a serious treatment of religion in the era should look elsewhere.<br />
<div style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal">See, for instance, the approximately thirty-three founders and traditions profiled in Dreisbach, Morrison, and Hall, eds., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742522792/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0742522792&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=4CY5CMKQBNPSGIMP" target=_blank><i>The Founders on God and Government</i></a> (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), Dreisbach, Morrison, and Hall, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0268026025/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0268026025&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=Q2552Z5V3PACCAN6" target=_blank><i>The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life</i></a>, <img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0268026025" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> and Dreisbach and Hall, eds, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019984335X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=019984335X&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb&linkId=IG2LM3H5KCO7KUYV" target=_blank><i>Faith and the Founders of the American Republic</i></a> (Oxford, 2014).</div></blockquote>(Read the whole thing).<br />
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Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-36490232709276829002015-01-20T18:57:00.000-08:002018-08-24T18:58:20.530-07:00'First Things' vs. 'Communio', "Murrayites" and "MacIntyrians"; The Paradox of the "Catholic Libertarian" and Another Kind of Illiberal Catholicism -- A roundup of relevant reading in 2014<ul><li><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-catholic-showdown-worth-watching/" target=_blank>A Catholic Showdown Worth Watching</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. <i>American Conservative</i> 02/06/14, on the ongoing debate between the school of John Courtney Murray (as expounded by <i>First Things</i>' George Weigel, Michael Novak and the late Richard J. Neuhaus) and the "Communio" school of Alasdair Macintyre, David Schindler, William T. Cavanaugh, and John Medaille.<br />
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<p><li><i>Opus Publicum</i> on <a href="https://opuspublicum.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/the-other-illiberal-catholicism/" target=_blank>The Other Illiberal Catholicism</a>. 07/04/14:<blockquote>Deneen’s portrait of illiberal Catholicism is helpful, but incomplete. Though hardly uniform in thought and orientation, the illiberal (or “radical”) Catholics Deneen mentions tend to take their bearings from the post-Second Vatican Council theology that developed in the pages of <i>Communio</i> and, to a more limited extent, the re-castings of St. Thomas Aquinas that occurred in various pockets of the Catholic intellectual world over the course of the 20th Century. For several reasons, these Catholic thinkers share some affinities with non-Catholics who are skeptical of liberalism, such as the Oxbridge “Radical Orthodoxy” school, though the former maintain a tighter hold on the Catholic Church’s magisterium. But beyond those mentioned by Deneen in The American Conservative is a brigade of illiberal Catholics with roots that run far deeper than intellectual trends which began to form during the latter half of the last century. These illiberal Catholics take their first bearings from the great socio-ecclesial encyclicals of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: Gregory XVI’s Mirari Vos; Blessed Pius IX’s Quanta Cura and <i>Syllabus Errorum</i>; Leo XIII’s <i>Immortale Dei</i> and <i>Rerum Novarum</i>; St. Pius X’s <i>Quanta Cura</i> and <i>E Supremi Apostolatus</i>; and Pius XI’s <i>Quas Primas</i> and <i>Quadragesimo Anno</i>. Rather than looking toward (post)modern academic currents for additional intellectual ammunition, these illiberal Catholics seek grounding in the timeless wisdom of the Angelic Doctor and the tradition which emerged from his teachings. </blockquote><br />
<p><li><a href="http://sancrucensis.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/integralism/" target=_blank>Integralism</a> - a wide-ranging essay initially responding to Zmirak's charges of <a href="http://www.aleteia.org/en/politics/article/illiberal-catholicism-6333360653729792">"illiberal Catholicism"</a>, but touching as well on on David Schindler's Critique of Liberalism; the question of religious liberty; the <i>natura pura</i> debate (contra Henri de Lubac); "On the Difference Between Just Being and Being Good: Why Rights Are Not the First Principles of Political Life"; and the "Integralist thesis."<br />
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<p><li><a href="http://opuspublicum.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/illiberal-catholic-manifesto/" target=_blank> [An] Illiberal Catholic Manifesto</a> - being a sermon elivered by Dom Gérard, Abbot of Le Barroux, In Chartres Cathedral, Pentecost, 1985.<br />
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<p><li>Mark DeForrest (<i>The Imaginative Conservative</i>) asks: <a href="http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/07/can-catholicism-and-libertarianism-co-exist.html" target=_blank>Can Catholicism and Libertarianism Co-Exist?</a> (07/06/14) and concludes:<blockquote>There is space within Catholicism to take libertarian arguments seriously, not to agree with them in every instance, but to look at them as a helpful perspective and corrective approach to understanding the dangers of government overreach at the expense of individual initiative and responsibility. By so doing, thinkers who work within the framework of Catholic social teaching can both better understand the libertarian critique of government power as well as aspects of Catholic social thought that have been eclipsed in recent decades. Just as Catholicism had nothing to fear from Aristotle or the Greek philosophers, it has nothing to fear from Friedrich Hayek and other libertarian thinkers and from the true if incomplete insights that they bring to questions involving the use of government power.</blockquote>However, <i>Opus Publicum</i> explains why <a href="https://opuspublicum.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/catholic-libertarianism-still-gets-it-wrong/" target=_blank>Catholic libertarianism still gets it wrong</a> ("their instincts are usually in the right place, but that’s no excuse for the conscious discharge of authentically Catholic social principles").<br />
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<p><li>Michael Novak on <a href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/staying-catholic-modern-world" target=_blank>On Being and Staying Catholic in the Modern World</a>, an address delivered June 7, 2014 to the graduating class of St. Michael the Archangel High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia.<br />
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<p><li>George Weigel pens a tribute to his friend in <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2014/24_1_michael-novak.html#.Uu_WODnYJdM.twitter" target=_blank>"American and Catholic": Michael Novak's achievement</a> <i>City Journal</i> Winter 2014.<br />
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<p><li><a href="http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=10467" target=_blank>A City Upon a Hill: Augustine, John Winthrop and the Soul of the American Experiment Today</a>, by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Address at the St. Anselm Institute, University of Virginia in Charlottesville on February 18, 2014:<blockquote>MacIntyre is not exactly a sunny source of hope when it comes to liberal democracy. And I don’t think we should give up – at least not yet – on the possibilities for good that still reside in our system of public life. ... </blockquote><br />
<p><li><a href="https://opuspublicum.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/neoconservatism-and-conceptual-clarity/" target=_blank>Neoconservatism and Conceptual Clarity</a> <i>Opus Publicum</i> 07/28/14:<blockquote>Last week Artur Rosman published a very informative interview with Patrick Deneen at Ethika Politika entitled “<a href="http://ethikapolitika.org/2014/07/25/neo-conservative-imagination-interview-patrick-deneen/" target=_blank>The Neo-Conservative Imagination</a>.” In it, Deneen discusses, among other things, the disconnect that exists within what he calls “neoconservative Catholics,” specifically their orthodox view on sexuality morality and their heterodox view on Catholic Social Teaching (CST). While I have no disagreement with him that there is a disconnect, I think the interview — and a lot of critical writing on what I will broadly call economic liberalism within Catholicism — could have taken more care to be conceptually clear. Let me see if I can sort it out. ...</blockquote><br />
<p><li><a href="http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/08/acton-lee-conversation-liberty.html" target=_blank>Acton and Lee: A Conversation on Liberty</a>, by Stephen Klugewicz and Veronica Mueller<br />
<i>The Imaginative Conservative</i> (08/02/14):<blockquote>It is interesting to note that Lord Acton corresponded with General Robert E. Lee after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Sympathetic to the Confederate cause, Lord Acton considered America’s Constitution as imperfect and “saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will.” In his letter of November 4, 1866, Lord Acton told General Lee that “secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy,” and expressed his belief that General Lee had been “fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization.”</blockquote><br />
<p><li><a href="http://calvinistinternational.com/2014/08/11/recovering-the-catholic-doctrine-of-private-property-pt-1/#_ftnref9" target=_blank>Recovering the Catholic Doctrine of Private Property, Part I: On Property Rights, Subjective and Objective, Human and Natural</a>; <a href="http://calvinistinternational.com/2014/08/13/recovering-catholic-doctrine-private-property-pt-2/" target=_blank>Part II: A Critical Examination of Catholic Social Teaching on the Question of Private Property</a>, by W. Bradford Littlejohn. <i>Calvinist International</i> 08/13/14.<br />
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<p><li><a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/ghosts-chuck-colson-richard-john-neuhaus-first-things/" target=_blank>Ghosts of Colson & Neuhaus</a>, by Rod Dreher. <i>The American Conservative</i> 10/01/14:<blockquote>I spent all day yesterday with a good group at the office of First Things magazine in New York City. It was a seminar put together by editor Rusty Reno to discuss the future of religion in the public square in what everybody agrees is a meaningfully different era from the one in which the ministries of the late Richard John Neuhaus and Chuck Colson rose to prominence. It was hard to be in that room today and not feel the presence of those two men, if only because their passing came at the end of a hopeful era for socially conservative Christians. ...</blockquote><br />
<p><li>Thomas Storck on the question: <a href="http://ethikapolitika.org/2014/09/29/authority-catholic-social-teaching/" target=_blank>What Authority Does Catholic Social Teaching Have?</a> Ethika Politika. 09/29/14. <br />
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<p><li>George Weigel: (HT: <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/05/truths-still-held" target=_blank>Truths Still Held? John Courtney Murray’s “American Proposition,” Fifty Years Later</a> (Thank you: <a href="http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2014/10/weigel-on-murrays-we-hold-these-truths.html" target=_blank>Rick Garnett</a>, <i>Mirror of Justice</i>). 10/13/14.<br />
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<p><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/10/13939/" target=_blank>Conservatives, America, and Natural Law</a>, by Samuel Gregg. <i>Public Discourse</i> 10/22/14. On the debate between the "Murrayites" and the "MacIntyrians"; What's wrong with "The Benedict Option", and Natural Law and the American Founding:<blockquote>For conservatives, a retreat into self-imposed isolation isn’t a responsible option. We need more conservatives publicly witnessing that humans are wired to know and freely choose truth, and that this has implications for the political order.</blockquote><br />
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<p><li><a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3545/Revisiting_Pope_Leo_XIII_and_Reclaiming_Catholic_Social_Doctrine.aspx" target=_blank>Revisiting Pope Leo XIII and Reclaiming Catholic Social Doctrine</a>, by Gregory J. Sullivan. <i>Catholic World Report</i> 12/01/14. A review of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1622821823/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1622821823&linkCode=as2&tag=greatwarfilms0d-20&linkId=C6GJ2XCYB7CSE7Q4"><i>Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching</i></a>, by Anthony Esolen. (Sophia Institute Press, Oct. 2014).<img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=greatwarfilms0d-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1622821823" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
<p><li><a href="http://ethikapolitika.org/2014/12/04/whats-really-stake-catholic-showdown/" target=_blank>What’s Really at Stake in the Catholic Showdown?</a>, by Thomas Storck. <i>Ethika Politika</i> 12/04/14:<blockquote>What exactly is that controversy? In a nutshell, it is over whether the liberal capitalist socio-political order is really compatible with a Catholic view of the state, of society, and even of the human person; whether the condemnations of liberalism made by so many popes and Catholic writers are suddenly out-of-date, passé, made obsolete by the triumph of the new world order represented by the Lockean polity that was fully realized in the United States; and whether, in fact, Catholics can perceive that just as communism posed a deadly threat to a Christian social order and to the very life of the Church, so the bourgeois liberalism of the capitalist world represents a threat of another sort, but in the end one that is just as dangerous.</blockquote><br />
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Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-4112404069132203712014-05-24T21:26:00.000-07:002014-05-24T21:26:08.871-07:00Joseph Bottum's "An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385518811/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385518811&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/an_anxious_age.gif" width="150" align="right" border="0"></a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385518811/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385518811&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank>An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America</a>, by Joseph Bottum. Image Books (February 11, 2014)<img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0385518811" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br />
<p><blockquote>We live in a profoundly spiritual age--but in a very strange way, different from every other moment of our history. Huge swaths of American culture are driven by manic spiritual anxiety and relentless supernatural worry. Radicals and traditionalists, liberals and conservatives, together with politicians, artists, environmentalists, followers of food fads, and the chattering classes of television commentators: America is filled with people frantically seeking confirmation of their own essential goodness. We are a nation desperate to stand on the side of morality--to know that we are righteous and dwell in the light.<br />
<p>Or so Joseph Bottum argues in <i>An Anxious Age</i>, an account of modern America as a morality tale, formed by its spiritual disturbances. And the cause, he claims, is the most significant and least noticed historical fact of the last fifty years: the collapse of the Mainline Protestant churches that were the source of social consensus and cultural unity. Our dangerous spiritual anxieties, broken loose from the churches that once contained them, now madden everything in American life.<br />
<p>Updating <i>The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism</i>, Max Weber's sociological classic, An Anxious Age undertakes two case studies in contemporary social class, adrift in a nation without the religious understandings that gave it meaning. Looking at the college-educated elite he calls "The Poster Children," Bottum sees the post-Protestant heirs of the old Mainline Protestant domination of culture: dutiful descendants who claim the high social position of their Christian ancestors even while they reject their ancestors' Christianity. Turning to "The Swallows of Capistrano," the Catholics formed by the pontificate of John Paul II, Bottum evaluates the early victories--and later defeats--of the attempt to substitute Catholicism for the dying Mainline voice in public life.<br />
<p>Sweeping across American intellectual and cultural history, An Anxious Age traces the course of national religion and warns about the strange angels and even stranger demons with which we now wrestle. Insightful and contrarian, wise and unexpected, An Anxious Age ranks among the great modern accounts of American culture.</blockquote><p><b>Interviews and Presentations</b><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://collectedmiscellany.com/2014/04/joseph-bottum-and-americas-anxious-age-part-1/" target=_blank>Joseph Bottum and America’s Anxious Age – Part 1</a> 04/07/14 | <a href="http://collectedmiscellany.com/2014/04/joseph-bottum-and-americas-anxious-age-part-2/" target=_blank>Part II</a> 04/08/14. Two-part conversation with Kevin Holtsberry (<i>Collected Miscellany</i>).<br />
<li><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/media/betweenthecovers/373087" target=_blank>"Between the Covers": Interview with Joseph Bottum</a>. John J. Miller. <i>National Review</i> 03/11/14.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.aei.org/events/2014/02/10/an-anxious-age-the-post-protestant-ethic-and-the-spirit-of-america/" target=_blank>Bradley Lecture: "An anxious age: The post-Protestant ethic and the spirit of America"</a> American Enterprise Institute. 02/10/14.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.imagecatholicbooks.com/interview-joseph-bottum-discusses-an-anxious-age/" target=_blank>Interview: Joseph Bottum discusses <i>An Anxious Age</i></a> Image Catholic Books. 02/13/14.<br />
</ul><p><b>Reviews and Discussion</b>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.eppc.org/publications/puritans-among-us/" target=_blank>The Puritans Among Us</a>, by Mary Eberstadt. <i>National Review</i> 04/21/14:<blockquote><i>An Anxious Age</i> abounds in logic and clarification (and for that reason among others, it was derelict of the book’s publisher to omit footnotes and an index, both of which would have helped to signal its scholarly nature). Even so, it is the book’s metaphors that will haunt the reader after he puts it down. Who else would describe Protestantism in the United States as “our cultural Mississippi, rolling through the center of the American landscape”? Likely no one — but the image brings to vivid and unexpected life a thousand Pew Research reports on declining attendance and the rise in “nones.” Similarly, the author’s unspooling of the story of the swallows of San Juan Capistrano as a metaphor for explaining what has happened to Catholicism in America is not only arresting but convincing, succeeding both as religious sociology and as literary trope.</blockquote><li><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/1/book-review-an-anxious-age/?page=all" target=_blank>Book Review: <i>An Anxious Age</i></a> by Geraldo Russo. <i>Washington Times</i> 04/01/14. "As Tocqueville and others have recognized, American religion and American exceptionalism have proceeded together. Now that they have been sundered, other choices present themselves. “An Anxious Age” explains how we can make the best of what confronts us."<br />
<p><li><a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/03/17/the-rise-of-secular-religion/" target=_blank>The Rise of Secular Religion</a>, by David P. Goldman. <i>The American Interest</i> 03/17/14:<blockquote>This is a work of deep pessimism, albeit mitigated by faith in divine intervention, and its author reveals his innermost thoughts only in parable. It is a work of great importance that should be read, re-read and debated by the literate public, believers and non-believers alike. It is to be hoped that its dark tone will not discourage those who are more likely to seek encouragement than instruction.</blockquote><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/03/12956/" target=_blank>An Anxious Author</a>, by Greg Forster. <i>The Public Discourse</i> 03/31/14:<blockquote>Joseph Bottum’s An Anxious Age is a bad book with a good book trapped inside it, struggling to get out. Bottum offers insightful observations that challenge prevailing assumptions about the nature and history of secular progressivism in America. Unfortunately, his main arguments are underdeveloped and disorganized, and the book’s appeal is limited by its prejudice against Protestantism. But the greatest disappointment is Bottum’s failure to practice the Christian virtue of hope.</blockquote><ul><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2014/04/13009/" target=_blank>American Hope: Don’t Conflate Political Culture and Christianity</a>, by Joseph Bottum. [Reply to Greg Forster] <i>The Public Discourse</i> 04/10/14. "... a forced smile and a Mrs. Rogers optimism about Americanist politics: I just don’t feel enough anxiety to fake it. A calm hope in Christ Jesus and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin seems enough to be going on with."<br />
</ul><p><li><a href="http://www.kirkcenter.org/index.php/bookman/article/rise-of-the-poster-children/" target=_blank>Rise of the Poster Children</a>, by Geoffrey Kabaservice. <i>The University Bookman</i> Spring 2014:<blockquote>An Anxious Age incorporates a number of separately published articles and essays, and sometimes the seams are visible. The reader most likely will not mind the digressions and set pieces that don’t relate to the overall argument, however, since the writing is so marvelous. Bottum’s chapter on John Paul II positively glitters, and his conclusion that the Pope was “the freest man in the twentieth century” is both satisfying and earned. His side-by-side profile of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and William F. Buckley Jr. says more about both men in a dozen pages than some books manage to convey, and effectively underscores Bottum’s argument that today’s Catholic intellectuals are at a disadvantage without the culture that could be taken for granted in the past. The book’s detours into figures such as Rauschenbusch, Max Weber, James Pike, and Avery Dulles are also fascinating.</blockquote><li><a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/3065/An_Anxious_Ageand_an_Antagonistic_Future.aspx" target=_blank>An Anxious Age—and an Antagonistic Future?</a>, by Christopher White. <i>Catholic World Report</i> April 13, 2014:<blockquote>Bottum’s work is primarily descriptive in nature and does not offer any hard predictions for what the future might hold from here. There is indeed the possibility that we might hope to begin toreintegrate the public square with a religious language where the poster children of post-Protestant America are convinced by the Catholic converts—or are at least hospitable to their convictions. But that remains unresolved. Considering the widespread skepticism and even hostility in which religious expression is viewed in America, it’s seemingly unlikely. And if this, indeed, the future that awaits us, it’s highly probably that this anxious age in which we live will give rise to an antagonistic one to follow.</blockquote><li><a href="http://ericsjackson.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-end-of-exceptionalism.html" target=_blank>The End of Exceptionalism</a>, by Eric Jackson. <i>Thoughts and Ideas</i> 3/28/14:<blockquote>As his book makes clear, Protestantism is gone, and—at present at least—Catholicism cannot fill the gap. America may have been exceptional in her religious composition, but it takes a considerable act of faith to see how she can remain so. Bottum is to be commended for the gentle way he leads the reader to this regrettable realization.</blockquote><li><a href="http://divestthis.com/2014/03/social-gospel-paradox.html" target=_blank>The Social Gospel Paradox</a> <i>Divest This</i>:<blockquote>for those who embraced the message of the Social Gospel, simply fighting against bigotry or corruption was not enough. Rather, one had to incorporate into one’s belief system the existence of superhuman evil in the universe organized around the six social sins ["bigotry, arrogance of power, corruption of justice for personal gain, mob madness and violence, militarism and class contempt"]. In other words, during an era when rationalism was banishing Satan from set of beliefs one could hold as a person of reason, the Social Gospel provided those same reasoned men and women a new set of spirits (really demons) in which to believe.<br />
<p>Rauschenbusch’s critics pointed out that a world in which man was responsible for aligning his soul against supernatural evil left little room for God and Christ. And while the original Social Gospel followers (all pious men and women) were able to deflect this criticism, it turns out that their children found it a bit easier to orient their faith around the fight against the Social Devil rather than belief in more traditional deities. And for their grandchildren and great grandchildren, it became easier and easier to abandon this or that doctrine – even the foundational beliefs of Christianity – so long as churches remained dedicated to the battle against bigotry, militarism and the other “genuine” spiritual evils in the world.<br />
<p>An irony that Bottum points out is that it was the very choice to put politics (or, more accurately, a human-based and ultimately politicized re-definition of religion) before doctrine that eliminated Mainliners role in both the religious and political realm. For as church leaders have themselves bemoaned in recent decades, when was the last time you heard a Presbyterian minister on the Sunday morning talk shows proving moral guidance on the issues of the day?</blockquote><li><a href="http://www.9marks.org/books/book-review-anxious-age-joseph-bottum" target=_blank>Reviewed by Matt McCullough</a> <i>9Marks</i> 3/25/14:<blockquote>Two lessons seem especially important. First, those of us who hold a traditional Christian view of human sexuality and marriage must get comfortable being dismissed as bigots. If Bottum is right about the post-Protestant “redeemed personality,” there is a tremendous psychological reward for identifying bigotry and very little social cost to condemning it. In this climate, there is no incentive to consider the nuance by which one can love a person and disapprove of their behavior, disapprove even because you love them and want to see them flourish.<br />
<p>Second, we’ve got to be willing to accept our status as outcasts from the power centers of American society before we’ll be of any use to American society. According to Bottum, Protestant Christianity was most influential in public life when Protestants were more interested in theological faithfulness than public usefulness. As he puts it, “religion actually works to ground the American experiment because we take religion more seriously than the American experiment” (291). The decline of Mainline Protestantism is a powerful cautionary tale. If we assume the gospel while we aim for cultural renewal—if we redefine it in the name of cultural relevance—we’ll end up irrelevant anyway.</blockquote><li><a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/02/conservative-right-occupy/" target=_blank>A conservative who was right about Occupy</a>, by Nathan Schneider. WagingNonviolence.com. 02/15/14:<blockquote>That a critic like Bottum, most at home in conservative quarters, credits Occupy for inspiring his book is to me a reminder of why the movement caught hold of me and so many others so fiercely at the outset: it had the potential to recenter our politics and our discourse and our spectrum. Its failures were less failures of aspiration than of accomplishment — that it wasn’t diverse enough, or empowering enough, or transformative enough to live up to its own transcendental ambitions. </blockquote></ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-65239804225058317942014-02-09T13:09:00.000-08:002014-02-14T04:38:55.945-08:00Recent Articles on Religion and Liberty, Catholicism and Liberalism<a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-catholic-showdown-worth-watching/" target=_blank>A Catholic Showdown Worth Watching</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. <i>The American Conservative</i> February 6, 2004. "The most interesting Roman split is over liberal democracy itself."<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/205939060/Liberalism-Capitalism-Pluralism-The-Catholic-Wars-Continue" target=_blank>Liberalism, Capitalism & Pluralism: The Catholic Wars Continue</a>, by Bonchamps. Scribd.com. 2/10/14. | (<a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2014/02/10/liberalism-capitalism-pluralism-the-catholic-wars-continue/" target=_blank>Discussion</a> @ <i>The American Catholic</i>).<br />
<li><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2014/02/catholic-and-ambiguous-pro-american-and-quirky-about-it" target=_blank>Catholic and American (and Quirky About It)</a>, by Peter Lawler. <i>First Things</i> 02/11/14.<br />
</ul><p><center>* * *</center><p><a href="http://www.aleteia.org/en/politics/article/illiberal-catholicism-6333360653729792" target=_blank>Illiberal Catholicism</a>, by John Zmirack. Aleteia. 12/31/13. "Catholics used to be open to the lessons of freedom from the American experience. Are we forgetting those lessons?" <ul><li><a href="http://www.aleteia.org/en/politics/article/breaking-open-the-liberal-echo-chamber-5336621486440448?page=3" target=_blank>Breaking Open the Liberal Echo Chamber</a>, by Mark Gordon. <i>Ethika Politika</i> 01/23/14. <br />
<li><a href="http://modestinus.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/three-cheers-for-illiberal-catholicism/" target=_blank>Three Cheers for Illiberal Catholicism</a>, by Modestinus. <i>Opus Publicum</i><br />
<li><a href="http://sancrucensis.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/integralism/" target=_blank>Integralism</a> <i>Sancrucenis</i> 01/16/14. <br />
<li><a href="http://ethikapolitika.org/2014/01/08/rejecting-zmiraks-rejection-illiberal-catholicism/" target=_blank>Rejecting Zmirak’s Rejection of ‘Illiberal Catholicism’</a>, by Andrew S. Haines. <i>Ethika Politika</i> 01/08/14.<br />
<li><a href="http://cosmostheinlost.com/2014/01/02/zmirak-inquisition/" target=_blank>Contra Zmirak: In Praise of the Inquisition</a>, by Arthur Rosman. <i>Cosmos in the Lost</i> 01/02/14. <br />
<li><a href="http://www.aleteia.org/en/politics/article/the-enlightenment-is-not-enough-5813657665536000" target=_blank>The Enlightenment is Not Enough</a>, by Jason Jones and John Zmirack. <i>Aleteia</i> 01/07/14. <br />
</ul><p><center>* * *</center><p><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/07/unsustainable-liberalism" target=_blank>Unsustainable Liberalism</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. <i>First Things</i> <ul><li><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/07/the-art-of-liberty" target=_blank>The Art of Liberty</a>, by Daniel J. Mahoney. <i>First Things</i> <i>First Things</i><br />
<li><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/07/public-life-without-political-theory" target=-blank>Public Life without Political Theory</a>, by Paul J. Griffiths. <i>First Things</i><br />
<li><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/04/eudaimonia-in-america" target=_blank>Eudaimonia in America</a>, by Robert Miller. "A pragmatic defense of American liberalism in response to Alisdair MacIntyre and Patrick J. Deneen." <i>First Things</i><br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/11/7060/" target=_blank>Why Social Conservatives Should Be Patriotic Americans: A Critique of Patrick Deneen</a>, by Vincent Phillip Munoz. <i>The Public Discourse</i> (The Witherspoon Institute). 11/28/12. "Rather than reject liberalism for its excesses, we should take up the more modest task of recovering the principles of liberalism once embraced by our founding fathers and Abraham Lincoln."<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/11/7156/" target=_blank>Better than Our Philosophy: A Response to Muñoz</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. 11/29/12.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/7857/" target=_blank>Sustaining American Liberalism in Principle and Practice</a> by Vincent Phillip Munoz. <br />
<li><br />
</ul><li><a href="Sustainable Liberalism" target=_blank>Sustainable Liberalism</a>, by Nathan Schlueter. <i>The Public Discourse</i> (The Witherspoon Institute). 12/07/12. "The solution to the political and moral crisis of our time does not lie in abandoning liberalism or in defending Lockeanism. It rests in the recovery of natural law liberalism—a sustainable public philosophy that is true to reason, to nature, and to Christian belief."<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/12/7411/" target=_blank>Beyond Wishful Thinking: A Response to Schlueter</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. 12/14/12.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/7511/" target=_blank>Natural Law Liberalism Beyond Romanticism</a>, by Nathan Schlueter. 03/04/13. "To reject the presence of natural law in documents of the Founding era is to embrace both cynicism and romanticism."<br />
</ul><li><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/03/9458/" target=_blank>Liberalism’s Logic and America’s Challenge: A Reply to Schlueter and Muñoz</a>, by Patrick J. Deneen. <i>The Public Discourse</i> (The Witherspoon Institute). 03/06/13. "The Founders’ vision of the 'common good' was not the pre-modern natural law conception of an objective human good, but a conception of 'mutual advantage' shaped by the social contract framework. This logic of liberalism has driven our country to its current political and cultural problems."<br />
</ul><p><center>* * *</center><p><a href="http://americamagazine.org/issue/murray%E2%80%99s-mistake" target=_blank>Murry's Mistake</a>, by Michael Baxter. <i>America</i> 09/23/13. "The political divisions a theologian failed to foresee." <ul><li><a href="http://www.eppc.org/publications/misreading-murray-yet-again/" target=_blank>Misreading Murray, Yet Again</a>, by George Weigel. <i>The Catholic Difference</i> 10/11/13.<br />
</ul><p><b>Profiles and Critiques</b> <ul><li><a href="http://www.eppc.org/publications/american-and-catholic/" target=_blank>Michael Novak: American and Catholic</a>, by George Weigel. <i>City Journal</i> 02/05/14. <br />
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-60302946509585632332013-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:002018-10-13T20:55:14.245-07:00Michael Novak: "Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385347464/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385347464&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank><i>Writing from Left to Right: My Journey from Liberal to Conservative</i></a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0385347464" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /><br>Image Books. September 2013.<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385347464/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385347464&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/lefttorightnovak.jpg" width="100" border="0" align="right" hspace="4" vspace="4"></a>Engagingly, writing as if to old friends and foes, Michael Novak shows how Providence (not deliberate choice) placed him in the middle of many crucial events of his time: a month in wartime Vietnam, the student riots of the 1960s, the Reagan revolution, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Bill Clinton's welfare reform, and the struggles for human rights in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also spent fascinating days, sometimes longer, with inspiring leaders like Sargent Shriver, Bobby Kennedy, George McGovern, Jack Kemp, Václav Havel, President Reagan, Lady Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II, who helped shape—and reshape—his political views.<br />
<p>Yet through it all, as Novak’s sharply etched memoir shows, his focus on helping the poor and defending universal human rights remained constant; he gradually came to see building small businesses and envy-free democracies as the only realistic way to build free societies. Without economic growth from the bottom up, democracies are not stable. Without protections for liberties of conscience and economic creativity, democracies will fail. Free societies need three liberties in one: economic liberty, political liberty, and liberty of spirit.<br />
<p>Novak’s writing throughout is warm, fast paced, and often very beautiful. His narrative power is memorable. </blockquote><p><p><b>Presentations</b><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/crisis-co-founder-celebrates-80th-year-with-new-memoir" target=_blank><i>Crisis</i> Co-Founder Celebrates 80th Year with New Memoir</a>, by Michael Pakaluk. <i>Crisis</i> Magazine. 09/09/13.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.imagecatholicbooks.com/book/223563/writing-from-left-to-right/?isbn=9780385347464&view=excerpt" target=_blank>Excerpt</a><br />
<li><a href="http://www.booktv.org/Program/14908/Writing+from+Left+to+Right+My+Journey+From+Liberal+to+Conservative.aspx" target=_blank>"Writing from Left to Right: My Journey From Liberal to Conservative"</a> CSPAN-2 BookTV. Address to the Kirkpatrick Society at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/content/michael-novak-writing-left-right" target=_blank><i>Between the Covers</i>: Interview with Michael Novak</a>. <i>National Review</i> 10/01/13.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.avemariaradio.net/audio_archive/kresta-in-the-afternoon-october-8-2013-hour-2/" target=_blank>Kresta in the Afternoon: Michael Novak</a> 10/8/13. <br />
<li><a href="http://www.catholicvote.org/five-questions-with-michael-novak/" target=_blank>Five Questions with Michael Novak</a>, by Joshua Mercer. CatholicVote.com. <br />
</ul><b>Reviews</b>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2014/09/04/michael_novaks_moral_compass.html" target=_blank>Michael Novak's Moral Compass</a>, by Mark Michalski. <i>Real Clear Religion</i> 09/04/14.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2653/Michael_Novak_from_Socialism_to_Conservatism.aspx#.UmQGrpT5lIk" target=_blank>Michael Novak, from Socialism to Conservatism</a>, by Christopher White.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/capturing-a-political-and-spiritual-moment" target=_blank>Capturing a Political and Spiritual Moment</a>, by Fr. John McCloskey. <i>National Catholic Register</i> 09/14/13.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.eppc.org/publications/a-catholic-for-all-seasons/" target=_blank>A Catholic for All Seasons</a>, by Mary Eberstadt. <i>National Review</i> 10/14/13.<br />
<li><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/4/book-review-writing-from-left-to-right/" target=_blank>BOOK REVIEW: ‘Writing From Left to Right’</a> <i>Washington Times</i> 12/4/13.<br />
<br />
</ul><p><center><div style="border: solid 1px #cc0000; background-color: #eaeaea; padding: 10px; width=: 96%; text-align: left;"><b>Also of Interest</b><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933859970/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1933859970&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/papaleconomics.gif" border="0" align="right" hspace="4" vspace="4"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933859970/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1933859970&linkCode=as2&tag=christopsweb" target=_blank>PAPAL ECONOMICS: The Catholic Church on Democratic Capitalism, from <i>Rerum Novarum</i> to <i>Caritas in Veritate</i></a>, by Maciej Zieba. <img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=1933859970" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<br>Intercollegiate Studies Institute. July 31, 2013.
<p>Maciej Zieba, OP, a close associate of Pope John Paul II, is the author of <i>The Surprising Pope: Understanding the Thought of John Paul II</i>. He was a key player in the Polish Solidarity movement and is the director of the European Solidarity Center and the founder of the Tertio Millennio Institute in Poland. Father Zieba has lectured extensively on economics and theology.
<b>Reviews</b>
<ul><li><a href="http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/10/popes-on-economics" target=_blank>Popes on Economics</a>, by Michael P. Orsi. <i>First Things</i> 10/23/13. "There exists a great deal of confusion regarding the popes’ social encyclicals. The problem is threefold: they span over one hundred years in changing political and social milieus; the language that is used is inconsistent; and, finally, there are competing tensions contained in the documents. This book navigates the reader through the confusion."<br />
<li><a href="http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2648/Toward_a_More_Human_State_of_Economics.aspx#.UmQQQpT5lIk" target=_blank>Toward a More Human State of Economics</a>, by Gabriel Torretta, O.P. <i>Catholic World Report</i> 10/16/13.<br />
</ul></div></center>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-40331590183685440412012-01-22T22:03:00.000-08:002012-01-22T22:06:46.394-08:00Catholic Prayer for Government<blockquote>We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.
<p>We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope N., the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.
<p>We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
<p>We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
<p>We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
<p>Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.
</blockquote>Composed by John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore, in 1791. (Recommended by <a href="http://venuleius.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/catholic-prayer-for-government/" target=_blank><i>Ius Honorarium</i></a>)Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-47324775257953561492011-06-05T11:48:00.000-07:002011-06-05T11:50:39.157-07:00Stephen Colbert on the "De-Deification of the American Faithscape"<center><div style="background-color:#000000;width:520px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:59606" width="512" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed></div></div></center>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-86838906587912427972011-03-26T18:01:00.000-07:002011-03-26T18:05:47.069-07:00Thaddeus J. Kozinski: "The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism: And Why Philosophers Can't Solve It"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739141686?ie=UTF8&tag=christopsweb&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0739141686" target=_blank><img src="http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/images/kozinski_pluralism.jpg" width="150" height="227" border="0" align="left" vspace="4" hspace="4"></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739141686?ie=UTF8&tag=christopsweb&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0739141686" target=_blank>The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism: And Why Philosophers Can't Solve It</a><br>by Thaddeus J. Kozinski. Lexington Books (August 16, 2010).<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0739141686" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
<div style="font-size: 11px;">In contemporary political philosophy, there is much debate over how to maintain a public order in pluralistic democracies in which citizens hold radically different religious views. The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism deals with this theoretically and practically difficult issue by examining three of the most influential figures of religious pluralism theory: John Rawls, Jacques Maritain, and Alasdair MacIntyre. Drawing on a diverse number of sources, Kozinski addresses the flaws in each philosopher's views and shows that the only philosophically defensible end of any overlapping consensus political order must be the eradication of the ideological pluralism that makes it necessary. In other words, a pluralistic society should have as its primary political aim to create the political conditions for the communal discovery and political establishment of that unifying tradition within which political justice can most effectively be obtained. Kozinski's analysis, though exhaustive and rigorous, still remains accessible and engaging, even for a reader unversed in the works of Rawls, Maritain, and MacIntyre. Interdisciplinary and multi-thematic in nature, it will appeal to anyone interested in the intersection of religion, politics, and culture. </div>
<p><b>Reviews</b>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=22429" target=_blank>Reviewed by Brendan Sweetman, Rockhurst University</a> Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 01/28/11.
</ul>
<p><b>Discussions</b>
<ul>
<li>by Kyle R. Cupp: <a href="http://vox-nova.com/2011/02/01/pluralism-and-the-confessional-state/" target=_blank>Pluralism and the Confessional State</a> (<i>Vox Nova</i> 02/01/11) | <a href="http://vox-nova.com/2011/02/03/if-not-a-confessional-state-then-what/#comments" target=_blank>If Not a Confessional State, Then What?</a> (<i>Vox Nova</i> 02/03/11).
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-4027411340823407982011-02-13T20:48:00.000-08:002011-02-13T20:49:07.066-08:00Natural Law, Natural Rights and American Constitutionalism<a href="http://www.nlnrac.org/" target=_blank>Natural Law, Natural Rights and American Constitutionalism</a> - brought to you by the Witherspoon Institute, "to create an online archive containing the seminal documents of these traditions with educational resources" -- made possible through the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and with direction from scholars associated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-9050394439431158062010-12-17T05:22:00.001-08:002010-12-17T05:22:39.526-08:00Remembering John Courtney Murray, SJ<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQd1kUMMyzMHGFKK2h-ewaUzUXNCtOBZ4K9YcFjrkQvjizrn4SOt3r3kEkLm4pQ-_mx1ZJIDNTlI0SmUMrYiHn1d0B19haXMk4NMfa8hCTczP5sF5npcCZ1ZKb9kVfcpUbf_xX/s320/250px-Time-magazine-cover-john-courtney-murray.jpg.jpg" width="150" align="right">50 years ago on December 12th, <i>Time</i> magazine featured Fr. John Courtney Murray (1904-1967) on its cover. <i>America</i>'s James Martin remembers the occasion <a href="http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?entry_id=3653" target=_blank>with a roundup of recommended reading</a>:<blockquote>If you've not heard of this great American Jesuit theologian, who was for a time prevented from writing on issues of church and state (his primary field of interest and the subject of his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0742549011?ie=UTF8&tag=christopsweb&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0742549011"><i>We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition</i></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0742549011" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> whose ideas were eventually incorporated into the Second Vatican Council's "<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html">Declaration on Religious Liberty</a>," and who was later officially "r<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9302/reviews/finn.html">ehabilitated</a>" by Pope Paul VI during his concelebration with the pope at a public Mass, here are pieces in <strong>America</strong> by the Msgr. Robert McElroy ("<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=3995">He Held These Truths</a>"), Gregory Kalscheur, S.J. ("<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=3686">American Catholics and the State</a>"), John Coleman, S.J. on what was at stake in the debates over religious liberty during Vatican II ("<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=4502">Religious Liberty</a>") and Fr. Murray himself, in an article that concisely maps out his position in 1963 ("<a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10854">On Religious Liberty</a>.") The time of his "silencing" is covered in Robert Nugent's new book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809146495?ie=UTF8&tag=christopsweb&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0809146495"><i>Silence Speaks: Teilhard de Chardin, Yves Congar, John Courtney Murray, and Thomas Merton</i></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=as2&o=1&a=0809146495" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> As McElroy, Kalscheur, Coleman show, his far-ranging ideas on church and state are particularly applicable today. And, as Nugent shows, the church often ends up incorporating into her teaching the very ideas that she rejected not long before. Finally, an <a style="color:#0d6cad" href="http://woodstock.georgetown.edu/library/Hooper/MURBIO.4.htm">excellent bio of Fr. Murray is here</a> at the Murray Collection at the Woodstock Center in Georgetown.</p></blockquote>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-55944215752976802602010-11-05T21:37:00.000-07:002010-11-05T21:38:33.137-07:00Guy Fawkes DayDon McClarey (<i>The American Catholic</i> reminds us:<blockquote><a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/11/05/remember-remember-2/" target=_blank>The idiotic anti-Catholic celebration of Guy Fawkes Day , observed each November fifth, was effectively ended in America during the Revolution in large part due to George Washington</a>. ... Catholics always had a friend in the Father of Our Country. </blockquote>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-62780573319373892342010-11-05T21:17:00.000-07:002010-11-05T21:20:18.359-07:00Joe Hargrave: "How John Locke influenced Catholic Social Teaching"<a href="http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/how-john-locke-influenced-catholic-social-teaching.html" target=_blank>How John Locke influenced Catholic Social Teaching</a> (Joe Hargrave, InsideCatholic.com. November 5, 2010):<blockquote>It isn't often that John Locke is mentioned in discussions of Catholic social teaching, unless it is to set him up as an example of all that the Church supposedly rejects. After all, Locke is considered one of the founders of a liberal and individualist political tradition that was rejected by the papacy in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, a closer examination of both Locke's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_noss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Djohn%2520locke%2520two%2520treatises%2520on%2520government%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&tag=christopsweb&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957"><i>Two Treatises on Civil Government</i></a><img src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=christopsweb&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> and the papal encyclical that set modern Catholic social teaching in motion, Pope Leo XIII's <i>Rerum Novarum</i>, reveals that Locke was not a pure "individualist" as many have assumed, nor was Rerum Novarum a categorical rejection of all things "individual." Rather, both Locke and Leo XIII craft their basic political arguments -- especially with respect to the right to private property -- based on the same assumptions about natural law, natural right, and Christian obligation.
<p>Though it is evident from the texts themselves, the agreement between Locke and Leo is also a historical fact. In 2005, Manfred Spieker, a professor of Christian Social Thought at the Universität Osnabrück in Germany, cited the influence of Locke on three of the men who drafted the text of <i>Rerum Novarum</i>. ... [<a href="http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/how-john-locke-influenced-catholic-social-teaching.html" target=_blank>more</a>]</blockquote>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-22040112142644806372010-09-28T22:31:00.000-07:002010-09-28T22:31:30.850-07:00Charles J. Chaput on "The Catholic Role in America After Virtue"<blockquote>Exactly 70 years ago, in 1940, Rev. John Courtney Murray gave a series of three college talks. For his theme, he chose the "concept of a Christian culture." After his death, his Jesuit brothers fused the talks into a single essay called "The Construction of a Christian Culture." It's a modest word change. But that title -- the construction of a Christian culture -- is a good place to begin our thoughts.
<p>Most people know Father Murray for his work on Vatican II's Decree on Religious Liberty. In his 1960 book We Hold These Truths -- which has never gone out of print -- Father Murray argued the classic Catholic case for America. Like any important thinker, his work has friends and critics. The critics respect Father Murray's character and intellect. But they also tend to see him as a victim of his own optimism and a voice of American boosterism. I understand why. Over the years, too many people have used Father Murray to justify too many strange versions of personal conscience and the roles of Church and state.
<p>But for me, Father Murray's real genius is tucked inside his words from 1940. They're worth hearing again. Father Murray said that "a profound religious truth is at the basis of democratic theory and practice, namely the intrinsic dignity of human nature; the spiritual freedom of the human soul; its equality as a soul with others of its kind; and its superiority to all that does not share its spirituality."
<p>He said that "the task of constructing a culture is essentially spiritual, for culture has its home in the soul." As a result, "All man's cultural effort is at bottom an effort at submission to the truth and the beauty and the good that is outside him, existing in an ordered harmony, whose pattern he must produce within his soul by conformity with it."
<p>These are beautiful thoughts. They're also true. The trouble is, they bear little likeness to our real culture in 2010. ...</blockquote><a href="http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/life-in-the-late-republic-the-catholic-role-in-america-after-virtue.html" target=_blank>Life in the Late Republic: The Catholic Role in America After Virtue</a>, by Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. Inside Catholic.com September 27 2010.Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-7937901412645739592010-06-05T21:11:00.000-07:002010-06-05T21:11:20.468-07:00"Charles Carroll, the Catholic Founder"<center><a href="http://ignatiusinsight.com/features2010/bbirzer_ccarroll_june2010.asp" target=_blank><img border="0" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCrkgPoI1lwzXq176zCqNl6KvGsoAFq_JgZRslAVwvEMrfTKkfNBpRz8FfHqbkZH_setb7vKODHyuFO9v8j7PAPszqhRM_hSmfNWoplq2wHsUOFvhkEwDvi6vKBH5FkpVQ144dRQ/s320/ccarroll.jpg" width="320" /></a></center>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5795877.post-79094535385030944602010-05-29T21:48:00.001-07:002010-05-29T21:48:49.371-07:00Catholics and the State - Recommended BloggingJoe Hargrave, blogger at (<i>Non Nobis</i> and fellow co-blogger at <i>The American Catholic</i>, has been exploring many topics with which this website has occupied itself. Readers may be interested in the following posts (and the ensuing conversations with readers):
<ul>
<li><a href="http://joeahargrave.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/tea-time-with-pope-leo-xiii/" target=_blank>Tea Time with Pope Leo XIII</a> - whether or not, and to what extent, it is legitimate to resist the government?
<li><a href="http://joeahargrave.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-distributist-manifesto/" target=_blank>A Distributist Manifesto</a> - "There is a great deal of confusion about what Distributism is, what it means, what its place is in Catholic social thought, and even over who started it. This essay will attempt to address some of these confusions..."
<li><a href="http://joeahargrave.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/exploring-americanism-and-the-catholic-counter-culture/" target=_blank>Exploring Americanism and the Catholic Counter-Culture</a> What are we to make of Leo XIII's condemnation of "Americanism"?
<li><a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/15/of-christians-catholics-and-tea-parties-part-ii/" target=_blank>Of Christians, Catholics and Tea Parties (Part II)</a> (<i>The American Catholic</i>)
<li><a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/13/of-christians-catholics-and-tea-parties-part-i/" target=_blank>Of Christians, Catholics and Tea Parties (Part I)</a> (<i>The American Catholic</i>)
<li><a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/03/02/culture-religion-the-nation-state/" target=_blank>Culture, Religion & The Nation-State</a> (<i>The American Catholic</i>)
<li><a href="http://joeahargrave.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/america-more-propositional-than-some-think/" target=_blank>America: More Propositional Than Some Think</a>
</ul>Christopher Blosserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08385159494196923575noreply@blogger.com