Rerum Novarum (1891) begins with this sentence: “That the spirit of new things [revolutionary change], which has long been disturbing the nations of the world, should have passed beyond the sphere of politics and made its influence felt in the cognate sphere of practical economics is not . . . . Continue Reading »
The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselvesby james poulosst martin’s, 304 pages, $26.99Alexis de Tocqueville was sensitive about his height, a mere 5 feet 4 inches, but it would have made him feel a giant to see some of the midgets who have followed after him. No . . . . Continue Reading »
Mercersburg theology has a small but devoted following among evangelically-oriented Calvinists. It was a nineteenth-century movement centered in the German Reformed seminary at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Leading scholars John Williamson Nevins and Philip Schaff criticized the individualism and . . . . Continue Reading »
Civil society does not represent an effort to “fix” something, whether it be the overweening state or the corrosive market. To think that it does is to miss the point. Continue Reading »
In recent years the poorer regions of the earth have been swept by a “population revolution” which, though it has attracted comparatively little attention, is nevertheless both unprecedented and pregnant with consequences for the peoples of the countries affected. This “revolution” has been . . . . Continue Reading »
The Idea of Civil Society by adam seligman free press, 220 pages, $24.95 Adam Seligman’s book, while primarily a theoretical, historical, and social inquiry into the notion of civil society, is motivated by a contemporary concern: namely, the felt need for a new representation of society in . . . . Continue Reading »