thoughts in and out of season
So why are the Americans more religious than the Europeans? There have been a variety of explanations:
The exchange keeps rolling (previous parts here, here, here and here). Here’s an edited version of the most recent installment:
… More ...Liberal Lawyer: On what basis do you claim that representational democracy with divided powers and charters guaranteeing individual rights were inventions of Catholicism?
Jim Kalb: I said “representative government with distributed powers
My liberal lawyer correspondent continues the discussion (previous exchanges here, here and here). Here’s an edited version of the most recent part of the exchange:
… More ...Liberal Lawyer: I strongly believe that the comprehensive liberals about which Hitchcock complains are pursuing things that fundamentally conflict with basic political liberalism as proposed by John Stuart
Faith and the Church
Tradition always points to something other than itself, so acceptance of one’s own tradition — and therefore knowledge — involves faith. Just as institutions and even reason depend on the complex of memories, understandings and habits that constitutes tradition, tradition depends on its connection to a larger order of which it … More ...
Tom Woods has a piece at LewRockwell.com on Catholic social teaching discussing the relation between (resolutely free-market) Austrian economics and various papal pronouncements of the past century, and why orthodox Catholics who also like Austrian economics should follow what their economic theories say alleviates poverty or whatever rather than take the Pope’s advice when the … More ...
My liberal lawyer correspondent (previous exchanges here and here) has asked how to compare and decide between a liberal and a more traditionalist and Catholic approach to politics and society. Here’s an edited version of the exchange:
… More ...Liberal Lawyer: Is it possible to come up with an objective standard by which one could
The word “fundamentalism” is confusing because the real point of interest is not a particular religious movement but a basic philosophical issue, whether God is symbol or reality. Is religious language just a way of talking about human ideals and concerns, or does it sometimes mean what it says? Since the former view is presupposed … More ...
[The following discussion appeared in the Winter, 2002 issue of Modern Age.]
Is religious faith necessary for conservatism? A more basic question is whether it is necessary for good sense, since it is for the sake of good sense that we are conservative. If it were otherwise, conservatism would be a hobby or ideology, … More ...
James Kalb
Yale Law School
Independent Study—Charles Gray, supervisor
May 1, 1978
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and indeed until the break with Rome under Henry VIII, king and church agreed that each had a sphere of exclusive jurisdiction that the other could not infringe upon without usurpation. Naturally, problems arose in defining the … More ...
The relation of religion and politics has long been a contentious issue in the West. Particularly in America, the dominant view has come to be that religion has no place in public life and should be kept strictly private. That view is extremely unusual historically, far from unanimously held in the world at large, … More ...