Category: Political Theology
Gangs of New Jerusalem: Act 1
We’ve been told that this is “unintelligible.” “Self-indulgently self-referential,” they’ve called it. “Possibly a really bad idea.” “Only five people will get it,” they’ve said. Well, you know who else they said that about? Shaw. Molière. Sheridan. Congreve. Aristophanes. Also...
Polis/Counter-polis: On the Civic Benedict Option
October 2016 was a simpler, more innocent time. We were all youths, wet behind the ears; we look back at ourselves with a kind of bemused affection. Rod Dreher assumed, surely—we all assumed—that Hillary Clinton would win in November, that...
An Introduction to the Reformed Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
I’m really excited to publish this post today from my friend Eric Hutchinson, classics professor at Hillsdale College. One of the projects I see Mere O taking on in the coming days is trying to outline some basic principles of political...
Dr. Moore and the Politics of Dinner Parties
On Monday night I got on the E train in Forest Hills and headed to the Union League Club on East 37th Street to hear Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public-policy arm of the...
On Voting and Civic Participation: A Response to Wayne Grudem
I’m delighted to publish this incisive review of Dr. Grudem’s Trump endorsement written by Drs. Matthew Arbo and Jeremy Kidwell. This has been a strange and bewildering year for American politics, and for certain segments of the American church. Some...
Betraying Politics: The Mystique of Public Life
“Everything begins as a mystique and ends as a politique,” observes French essayist Charles Péguy. In other words, that which begins as a pure idea—mystic, even transcendent—devolves into profane politics, the slow grind of policy divorced from any sort of...
Is Not Voting in an Election Nihilistic?
One of the more common complaints about yesterday’s feature by Matt is that refusing to vote for a candidate in an election is nihilistic in a way that goes well beyond whatever nihilism one might see in Dod Crump. (This is...
Reviewing John Wilsey’s “American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion”
I’m pleased to publish this guest review today by Hillsdale College visiting professor Dr. Miles Smith. You can learn more about Dr. Smith from his bio below this post. You can also follow him on Twitter @IVMiles A book exploring...
The Relationship Between American Political Thought and Biblical Interpretation
Tim Scheiderer is a freelance writer and Southern Seminary graduate. He lives in metro Washington, DC. Culture is a force comprised of traditions curated and subsequently cherished in the hearts of the collective as years expire. It presses itself upon...
Reopening the Question of China and Hobby Lobby
We’ve been through this once already, but since my friend Jonathan Merritt’s latest piece dredging up the charge of hypocrisy against the Greens because they do business in China has been sent around, so I thought I’d say one or two...