In a story on the Chinese obsession with Strauss and Karl Schmitt ( TNR , 12/30), Mark Lilla gives this neat precis of Schmitt’s critique of liberal politics: “Schmitt was by far the most intellectually challenging anti-liberal statist of the twentieth century. His deepest objections to . . . . Continue Reading »
In his essay in Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology , Milbank suggests that we translate dikaiosune pisteos as “just solidarity through trust,” which Paul contrasts with all attempts to established solidarity through law or other means. . . . . Continue Reading »
“The world in its essence, is a community, a community of creator and created, and has its source, God. Thus concludes a recently published Princeton undergraduate thesis, recently recovered by Princeton’s Eric Gregory. The thesis was written in 1942 . . . . by John Rawls! Before he got . . . . Continue Reading »
At one time the website Front Porch Republic stood as a shining light, celebrating an open and public discussion of the limits of government, the intrinsic necessity of conceiving of ‘place’ in the human drama, and the acknowledgement of ‘liberty’ as a requirement . . . . Continue Reading »
John Milbank ends his stimulating and confounding opening essay in Paul’s New Moment: Continental Philosophy and the Future of Christian Theology with this: “any hopeful political project requires a sense that we inhabit a cosmos in which the realization of good and of justice might be . . . . Continue Reading »
The Economist ‘s “Lexington” correspondent offers a cheer or two to the Tea Party movement. It starts snidely: “They are not French.” Snarky, but it has a serious point: For all the frothing attacks on the Tea Party from Democrats, none of them have barricaded streets . . . . Continue Reading »
The Bible has a lot to say about abuse and oppression of the poor. My question here is, Who are the oppressors? Scripture’s answer is non-discriminatory. All classes and categories of people, as well as institutions and nations, oppress the poor, the helpless, the powerless and . . . . Continue Reading »
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has an illuminating review of two recent books on empire in a recent TLS . He opens with a brief argument that “there can be no restrictive theory of empire,” putting in evidence, among other things, the fact that “between the sixteenth and . . . . Continue Reading »
Voices cry out with fair regularity against the vapidness of contemporary public discourse. Lots of voices. Enough for a quorum, if not a consensus. Less consensus is evident when those voices attempt to explain the causes of this situation. Bad education? Video games? TV? . . . . Continue Reading »
As a Christian and a conservative, I believe we have reached a crossroads where we need to seriously reconsider our approach to cultural engagement. The swift undercurrent of moral decay continues to take most Christians by surprise while our pragmatic approach to morality rooted in tradition and . . . . Continue Reading »
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