Various

CHALLENGING EVANGELICALS If Gerald McDermott is right, Martin Luther is the person ultimately responsible for liberal theology (“Evangelicals Divided,” April). Like those evangelicals McDermott labels Meliorists (a term none of us uses), Luther dared to challenge time-honored and settled . . . . Continue Reading »

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has announced that men seeking to spay or neuter their pets are eligible for a free vasectomy in solidarity with their soon-to-be sterile dog or cat. The winner will be selected based on how well he argues that “his sterilization will most . . . . Continue Reading »

Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy by Samuel Gregg Edward Elgar, 216 pages, $115 Once upon a time, a political economist could write a book titled An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and another one titled The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Not so anymore. Though . . . . Continue Reading »

The Reformation and Churchly Scripture There is a tension in Protestant ecclesiology that Timothy George only hints at in his treatment of the “churchly context of reading Scripture” and in his dismissal of the Maritainian critique of Luther’s radical individualism (“Reading the . . . . Continue Reading »

MACINTYRE’S ECONOMICS Robert T. Miller first says that I am a great philosopher (“Waiting for St. Vladimir,” February) and then accuses me of being stupid enough to hold what he takes to be a set of obviously false propositions. On both counts he is mistaken, although I am more . . . . Continue Reading »

Conservative Liberalism or Liberal Conservatism? I am grateful to James Kalb for his thoughtful and respectful engagement with my newly published book The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order (“Squaring the Circle,” February). He credits me with posing some of the right questions and . . . . Continue Reading »

Bearing Witness through marriage Liberal evangelical Ron Sider makes a strong case in favor of the ancient Christian and indeed natural understanding of marriage (“Bearing Better Witness,” December 2010). He attempts to “balance” his article by simultaneously chiding . . . . Continue Reading »

Natural Law, Franckly Speaking Matthew Franck has been a friend, and I know he was seeking to be generous of spirit in his review of my new book (“The Lawful Truth,” October 2010). But he gives us a version of Carnac the Magnificent: Instead of pronouncing the answers and then announcing . . . . Continue Reading »

Policy Pollyanna Foreign-policy experts tend toward blindness to the moral aspects of what they analyze, and theologians are typically without expertise in geopolitics. George Weigel is one of the few people able to offer informed discussion of both morality and geopolitics, and he does so with his . . . . Continue Reading »

The Politics of Life My own take on abortion politics is somewhat different from Joseph Bottum’s (“The Signpost at the Crossroads” August/September 2010). I have yet to hear an explanation of how America, or any given state, would go about distinguishing between sought abortions that are . . . . Continue Reading »