Berry again, waxing prophetic, and thanks again to Ken Myers. “In denying the holiness of the body and of the so-called physical reality of the world—and in denying support to the good economy, the good work, by which alone the Creation can receive due honor—modern Christianity . . . . Continue Reading »
Senator Albert Beveridge described our mission in 1898: “God has . . . made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns. He has given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the forces of reaction throughout the earth. He has made us adept in government that we . . . . Continue Reading »
Schmemann says that the distinctive mark of the converted Roman Empire, and of the Byzantine order, was the “state’s” acknowledgement that the end of the church was the end of all things, also then the end of the state. The state no longer existed to promote its own ends, but to . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 2009 essay in Political Theology , Jamie Smith notes the difference between libertarian freedom and the Augustinian notion of freedom to pursue and do the Good. He puts the matter starkly: Quoting David Burrell, he argues that libertarian freedom “demands ‘that a free agent . . . . Continue Reading »
In his 1995 Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom , Steven Smith challenges the notion that there is a single ideal of religious liberty and argues that any quest for such an ideal principle is doomed to failure. Religious freedom comes in various . . . . Continue Reading »
What is modern politics? Kahn describes it as “a distinctive form of religious experience” that depends on the shift of sovereignty (Schmitt) from the monarch to the people. When the miraculous of sovereignty shifts, so does sacrifice: “The domain of sacrifice shifted [in modern . . . . Continue Reading »
In his provocative 2005 study, Putting Liberalism in Its Place , Yale’s Paul W. Kahn argues that “we will never understand the character of the American rule of law without first understanding the way in which it is embedded in a conception of popular sovereignty. More importantly, we . . . . Continue Reading »
Let’s assume that the Eucharist makes a political difference. And let’s observe that the predominate Christian tradition of the US has been a-Eucharistic. Then we must ask, What political difference has that made? . . . . Continue Reading »
Without American missionaries, no Transcendentalism, says Mead (almost): “Missionary endeavors to translate the sacred writings of other faiths into English may have been for the purposes of arming Westerners for religious controversy with the heathens, but the ideas of those texts quickly . . . . Continue Reading »
Gedicks again, on the claim that the Establishment Clause requires the government to remain neutral between “religion and irreligion” and between “belief and unbelief”: “This dictum, present at the birth of contemporary Establishment Clause doctrine inthe Everson case . . . . Continue Reading »
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