Here is an excerpt from an article on Chantal Delsol I have forthcoming in Perspectives on Political Science : In the place of “true judgment” or prudence, the defenders of international justice satisfy their hunger for rational certitude and analytical specificity with mere . . . . Continue Reading »
Does anyone out there really believe in “metaphysical neutrality” in the political realm, or, for that matter, in a purely “political” liberalism (later Rawls) that would be neutral with respect to understandings of the meaning of life, or of “the . . . . Continue Reading »
I brought up Adam Kirsch vs. Slavoj Zizek once before , wisely dropping the matter after one post, but now they’re back, and anyone interested should check out their (surely final) exchange at The New Republic . I don’t know if it’s worth the time to make heads or tails of . . . . Continue Reading »
In reference to Will’s particularity-and-truth thread, Helen offers some reflections on Burke that lend themselves so well to speaking theologically that, well, here we go. My familiarity with Burke nowadays is a lot narrower, if deeper, than it was a decade ago, but I can’t really . . . . Continue Reading »
“Those who distinguish civil from theological intolerance are, to my mind, mistaken. The two forms are inseparable. It is impossible to live at peace withthose whom we regard as damned; to love them would be to hate God who punishes them: we positively must either reclaim or torment . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ll confess to being a little bit dissatisfied both by Helen’s latest screed contra statistics and by Prof. Kenneally’s argument that science improperly understood ignores the qualities of our lived experience . Both have managed to say a lot of true things but neither, in my . . . . Continue Reading »
"At the time and in the country in which the present study was written, it was granted by everyone except backward people that the Jewish faith had not been refuted by science or by history . . . . [O]ne could grant to science and history everything they seem to teach . . . . Continue Reading »
I finally read THE PROBLEM OF GOD—a neglected classic by the great Jesuit theologian and political thinker John Courtney Murray (1904-67). Here’s the contribution Murray makes to our understanding of postmodern conservatism or postmodernism rightly understood. Distinctively modern . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s impossible to ignore all the characteristic signposts of the Christmas season—wherever you go the familiar sights and sounds are unmistakably evocative of the winter holiday. Our malls, shops, houses, television stations and radio airwaves are all transformed into vehicles of . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s impossible to ignore all the signposts of the Christmas season—wherever you go the sights and sounds are unambiguously evocative of the holiday season. Still, sometimes as powerful as the familiar Christmas imagery is the impulse to secularize the holiday—to pull . . . . Continue Reading »
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