Page 73 of 104
Challenges Facing the Culture
R&L: What did you mean when you subtitled your 1989 book Against the Night, “Living in the New Dark Ages.” Have the last four years changed your views?Religion's Role in Public Life
R&L: Alexis de Tocqueville observed that religion is the first political institution in America, an observation you have said is even more true today than it was in the nineteenth century. Would you explain?Public Morality: The Jewish Contribution
R&L: There is a recognition by Jewish religious writers that wealth can undermine one’s spiritual well-being. In what way does this occur?Christianity, Classical Liberalism are Liberty's Foundations
R&L: Explain the difference between classical liberalism and modern liberalism.Written on the Heart
Many Americans likely never heard of the concept of natural law until it was made an issue in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. As then, we would do well to consider a good, clear definition. In the broadest sense of the term, natural law embraces the whole field of morality.Chronicle of a Modern Christian Radical
George Weigel’s remarkable biography of a remarkable pope closes with G. K. Chesterton’s description of Saint Thomas More: “He was above all things, historic: He represented at once a type, a turning-point, and an ultimate destiny.Prophet or Siren? Ron Sider's Continued Influence
Ever since the 1977 publication of his Rich Christians in the Age of Hunger, Ron Sider has been among the most prominent voices calling American evangelicals to a greater concern for the poor. Since then, he has continued to write prolifically on the subject of poverty and the Christian’s obligation to the poor.A Declaration of the Rights of Land
Lord Acton observed that “few discoveries are more irritating than those that expose the pedigree of ideas.” Acton’s remark highlights the kind of uneasiness that present-day environmentalists undoubtedly must experience. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the idea that the earth’s flora and fauna should be actively protected is not the product of the ideological Left. The modern effort to preserve endangered nature was the brainchild of a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt.Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery
John Mueller, political science professor at the University of Rochester, aims to show that capitalism works pretty well and does not deserve its bad reputation. Democracy, meanwhile, is not perfect and ought not be invested with longings for egalitarian utopia. Both are problematic but adequate (like “Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery” of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, where you can get what you need, though not everything you may want).In Search of the Historian of Freedom
The quality biographer provides a portrait of his subject that extends beyond a summary description of the events central to a life. The superb biographer examines an individual life in the context of the cultural and historical milieu in which his subject lived, remaining sensitive to the forces that shaped personal and intellectual development. This, in turn, lays a foundation for appreciating a historical figure’s enduring legacy. In Roland Hill, Lord Acton has found a superb biographer.Calvin and Locke Fight for Lincoln's Soul
When it comes to beliefs about Abraham Lincoln’s religion, there are no agnostics. Scholars and laypersons alike conclude one way or another on his Christianity. The best scholarship interprets Lincoln’s religious rhetoric neither as mere political savvy nor as evangelical fervor but as a sincere expression of a practical Christianity of sorts–certainly not doctrinaire, orthodox, or conventional for his day. These works include William E. Barton’s classic, The Soul of Lincoln (1920); Richard N.The Everyday Ethics of Work
Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits is the latest to come out in an emerging series that carries the title, The Ethics of Everyday Life. In the preface, the editors describe it innocently enough as having been “produced by a group of friends [they are Timothy Fuller, Amy A. Kass, Leon R.