Suchergebnisse

Canovan remarks that one of the reasons the American Revolution signifies 'a turning-point in the history of the people is that it launched the career of the people as a universalist and progressive cause, with a wide-ranging radical agenda capable of subverting established institutions in the USA itself and around the world' (p. 32). There is, for example, the question of whether a people is necessarily an organic growth, taking perhaps centuries to develop or whether it can be mobilized for a particular action like the uprising of the American colonists against England in the late eighteenth century. [...] on this point, as on many other matters connected with the ancient idea of a mystical Everyone, at the source of all legitimate power and political action, she is well worth reading.

As a protest, the argument of Professors Glenn and Stack is valid and important. That the realm of public debate is largely closed to those who stand explicitly on Judaic and Christian principles is an intellectual scandal. This closure, of course, is the doing not of the courts (even though it accords with attitudes quite evident in the courts) but of academicians, journalists, and various political activists who are quick to rule any appeal to religious premises, as well as any moral judgments thought to derive therefrom, such as the evil of abortion, out of order. Their ostensible justification is that public discourse must be based on premises common to all participants. Such a justification may be superficially plausible, but it is worse than dubious. It enables opponents of religion to narrow their minds without compunction and to constrict the public realm. In effect, contemporary secularists say to would-be religious interlocutors, "Yours are arguments we refuse even to face or consider."

Walking in Ernest Fortin's scholarly universe is a great pleasure. One breathes an atmosphere of serenity, good sense, and profound erudition. Fortin is at once highly serious yet often amusing; he is both learned and unpretentious; he is frequently skeptical but never unpleasant or destructive. The traveler in his universe encounters not only a great number of interesting discussions but also particularly brilliant pieces, such as "The Bible Made Me Do It: Christianity, Science, and the Environment," where the author fully exposes the absurdity of the claim that Genesis 1, in which God grants humanity dominion over the rest of creation, bears responsibility for the damage done in recent times to the physical environment. In bringing together the essays and reviews that make up these volumes, Brian Benestad has performed an important service not only for the community of Christian scholars and thinkers but for all who are interested in the history of philosophy and political theory.