Joseph Knippenberg

We live in a time of grand explanations of Obama—Dinesh D’Souza’s post-colonialism, Stanley Kurtz’s socialism, and James Kloppenburg’s pragmatism have all come to the fore recently. Now Sean Wilentz throws his hat in the ring. Our President is (or was) the leader of a . . . . Continue Reading »

The Immanent Frame is a blog devoted to “secularism, religion, and the public sphere” sponsored by the Social Science Research Council .  This is a theme that interests me (and, I’d imagine, many readers of FT), so I read it from time to time. But this collection of brief . . . . Continue Reading »

There’s much being said and written about the midterm elections (you can thank me later for not [yet, at least] adding my own voice to the cacophony). Right now, I’m just going to note a few pieces I just read, thanks to RealClearReligion . First, there’s the garden-variety . . . . Continue Reading »

Back during the (George W.) Bush Administration, I spent (or rather wasted) some time reading books and articles written by journalists who were suspicious (I hesitate to say paranoid) about those suspicious and paranoid fringe religious kooks (theonomists and theocrats) who threatened to take over . . . . Continue Reading »

Since I have a Ph.D. in political science (albeit from a Canadian university), some people expect me to know something about voting behavior. At this time of year, I try not to embarrass myself too badly. With that in mind, I promise to make some not too poorly informed comments on this site in the . . . . Continue Reading »

One of the more promising innovations in state-level education policy has been the establishment of programs that encourage privately-funded scholarships for students attending private and religious elementary and secondary schools.  Avoiding the hotly-contested political terrain of vouchers, . . . . Continue Reading »

Via Jonah Goldberg, I have more from Corey Robin on his original essay , which is apparently the short version of a longer academic article. (Robin’s comments are #44 and #46 in the list of responses.) You can read my original post here . Here are the most relevant snippets from his comments: . . . . Continue Reading »

I was working my way through my inbox this morning when I came across this piece . Conservatives, I was told, just love war: Violence, the conservative maintains, is one of the experiences in life that makes us feel alive, and violence, particularly warfare, is an activity that makes life, well, . . . . Continue Reading »

I have the highest regard for Washington Post columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson.  I look forward to his columns and regard him as the best speechwriter of his generation and worthy of mention in the same sentence with Peggy Noonan and William Safire.  I thought well of . . . . Continue Reading »

By now, you have probably seen, or at least heard of , this ad: I have no idea what Rand Paul did when he was an undergraduate at Baylor University, but I doubt that he ever seriously worshipped false idols.  (Full disclosure: when I was young and cynical, and as yet unacquainted with that . . . . Continue Reading »