Contributing Authors FRED BARNES is Executive Editor at The Weekly Standard and a regular commentator on PBS’s “The McLaughlin Group.” DR. TOM BETHELL is the Washington, D.C. correspondent for The American Spectator and a Fellow at the Hoover Institution. DON BONKER, a former Congressman from Washington state, is President of the International Management and Development Institute in Washington, D.C. HON. Read More ›
Should the government be viewed as the primary agent for solving social problems? Should it seek to equalize wealth among different groups of citizens? In short, what is the proper role of government? The essays in this chapter seek to answer such questions by examining Lewis’s defense of limited government and his critique of the welfare state. Contributing authors to Read More ›
FOREWORDBy George Weigel There is an irony in asking C.S. Lewis how Christians should talk about political issues. As A.N. Wilson recently wrote in a newspaper, "C.S. Lewis never read a newspaper in his life. It did him no harm, though it did lead to some confusion–as when he had a passionate argument with his brother, ruefully admitting at Read More ›
INTRODUCTION By John G. West, Jr. Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute Many people today seem to think that religion in politics is somehow a new phenomenon. It isn’t. Religion has never stayed out of politics, especially in America. During the Revolutionary War, ministers urged their congregations to resist King George. During the early 1800s, clergy and laity alike spearheaded campaigns Read More ›
CHAPTER 1: HOW SHOULD PEOPLE OF FAITH TALK ABOUT POLITICAL ISSUES? Christians and other people of faith often disagree about how to articulate their moral concerns in the public arena. Some call for framing policy questions explicitly in terms of "Biblical values" or the "Judeo-Christian tradition," while others advocate a more secular approach, stressing"family values" or "natural law." As Read More ›
Chapter 2: HOW CAN PEOPLE OF FAITH APPLY MORALITY TO POLITICS? In ancient and medieval political philosophy, prudence was the crown of the moral virtues because it showed one how to apply the other moral virtues in particular cases. The virtue of prudence remains of critical political importance today. Even if we know the moral standard to apply to Read More ›
CHAPTER 4: WHAT ARE THE THREATS TO FREEDOM IN MODERN SOCIETY? C.S. Lewis expressed concern about how the modern state could undermine human freedom and dignity if policymakers adopted the approach of modern social science. At the same time, Lewis also doubted the ability of any government to permanently reshape and subordinate a nation’s citizenry. The essays in this Read More ›
CHAPTER 5: HOW SHOULD PEOPLE OF FAITH BECOME INVOLVED IN POLITICS? Should Christians or other people of faith form their own political parties, or should they work through the existing party system? Should they form exclusively religious political groups, or should they form political coalitions with people outside their faith traditions? What are the dangers and temptations religious adherents face Read More ›