Joyce Appleby’s Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth-Century England has a forbiddingly monographic title, but don’t be put off. It’s a profound meditation on the earliest construction of modern economic theory, an attempt to explain “how the market becomes central . . . . Continue Reading »
In the latest issue of the NYRB , Mark Lilla takes apart Corey Robin’s recent The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin . Lilla quotes this from Robin: “Conservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It . . . . Continue Reading »
I offer a few simple thoughts about how to think about empires today at http://www.firstthings.com/ . . . . Continue Reading »
Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote in support of laws that ban flag-burning: “The flag is not simply another ‘idea’ or ‘point of view’ competing for recognition in the marketplace of ideas. Millions of millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence . . . . Continue Reading »
In War and the American Difference: Theological Reflections on Violence and National Identity , Hauerwas offers this sobering assessment of American Protestantism. American churches contributed massively to formation of America, but the God that Americans believe in “turns out to be the . . . . Continue Reading »
Harry Stout’s Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War is a chilling book, but one of the most chilling moments comes at the end, in a quotation of a letter from General Philip Sheridan to Sherman in 1873: “In taking the offensive [against Indians] I have to select . . . . Continue Reading »
Peter Gordon has an excellent discussion of Jurgen Habermas’s alleged “turn to religion” in the latest issue of TNR . Gordon wants to show that Habermas has long shown interest in religion, and that his recent obsession with it is not evidence that he has abandoned his commitment . . . . Continue Reading »
Thomas ( ST II-II, 2, 7) argues that every saved person, including Adam, had explicit knowledge of the incarnation of Christ: “the object of faith includes, properly and directly, that thing through which man obtains beatitude. Now the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation and Passion is the . . . . Continue Reading »
At the beginning of the millennium, the saints sit on thrones and “judgment is given to them” (Revelation 20:4). The phrase is ambiguous: Does this mean “the power to judge was given them” or “they received a favorable judgment from the court?” The context of . . . . Continue Reading »
Wilfred McClay has neatly summarized the creed, scriptures, sacraments, and sacred places and times of America’s civil religion: “The same mix of convictions can be found animating the rhetoric of the American Revolution, the vision of Manifest Destiny, the crusading sentiments of . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
