The ideas of the political theorist Carl Schmitt are enjoying a revival—an unusual point of agreement between elements of the left and right. Schmitt made three striking claims. First, he argued that politics was defined by the dichotomy between friend and enemy. Second, he thought that politics interpenetrated and dominated all spheres of life from aesthetics to religion. Third, he...

　　For a number of years now pleasant young women or persons identifying as women, or with female-sounding names have been contacting me from the university’s diversity office, inviting me to attend sessions to discuss our DEI policies. Harvard has to be different, so we use the acronym EDIB, for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging our previous president Drew Faust, as...

　　Editor’s Note: The following is adapted from the author’s recently released book, Everyday Freedom. 　　Trust in institutions is at all-time lows.Schools and hospitals are distrusted by two-thirds of Americans, large companies by even more, and Congress by almost everybody. 　　The one trust bright spot is small business, with a 65 percent trust level.What is it that small business has that...

　　Wisdom of the ages tells us somewhat unhelpfully that “if something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Our nation stands at the precipice of an unparalleled 34 trillion dollar debt crisis and a Social Security and demographic collapse. Our post-Cold War military supremacy is rapidly being outflanked by an ascendent and expansionist China. A growing global bloc resents and...

　　Is the future of the National Football League’s Super Bowl linked with the future of American democracy? The Super Bowl may seem to some like an overly commercialized sports championship game, but it holds considerable cultural significance. It has emerged as an annual American celebration—for die-hard football fans and casual observers alike. Thus, whether or not they enjoy football, Americans...

　　Rather than upping the rhetorical ante in the dispute over the removal of Texas’s concertina wire in the Rio Grande by US Homeland Security agents, Gov. Abbott of Texas should simply distribute the text of Federal District Chief Judge Alia Moses’ devastating written decision. While finding for the Department of Homeland Security DHS on narrow technical grounds regarding a preliminary...

　　Senator Josh Hawley recently published an article in First Things titled Our Christian Nation, where he argues that America can become a more Christian nation through public school prayer and higher wages for workers. While Hawley rightly rejects the desire for a Christian nationalist agenda in civil law, he fails to properly address the role of the church in shaping...

　　The year 2023 was not kind to the humanities and liberal arts. Many public universities, such as West Virginia University, continued the trend of cutting funding for these disciplines due to budget constraints. When a university faces declining enrollment, something has to give - and its usually not the administrators salaries. Moreover, the number of students majoring in the humanities...

“You say the materialist universe is ‘ugly,’” wrote C. S. Lewis to a young skeptic in 1950. “…If you are really a product of the materialistic universe, how is it you don’t feel at home there?” Nearly half-a-century later, Lewis’s question still resonates. Modern society continues to operate largely on the materialistic premises of such thinkers as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud. Yet few today feel at home in the materialist universe where God does not exist,...

One of the several magnificent intellectual achievements of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881—1973) was his development of prehensive science of human action, called “praxeology.” One of the main conclusions drawn from praxeology is that free markets will result in more prosperity than government-directed economic activity–a position that naturally makes Misesian economics popular with conservatives. At the same time, one aspect of praxeology often poses a gigantic stumbling block to conservatives of deep religious convictions. They have been...

From the historical beginnings of the Christian movement, there has been an understanding that the governing authorities of the world are under the providence of God. According to Saint Paul, government serves a valuable and divinely ordained purpose until the Parousia, when the return of Christ will fully inaugurate the new creation. Government, Paul declares, is “instituted by God” and is “God’s servant for your good.” Its fundamental function is to provide law and order and punish wrongdoers: “For...

The usual line on medical ethics goes something like this. In the old days, ethics and medicine weren’t often in conflict. The physician intervened to save lives when he could, but his main limitation was technological. Nowadays, however, we have the technology to keep life going for an indeterminate period, blurring distinctions between life and death. This reality necessitates that doctors and families make difficult decisions about when to pull the plug. And since finances are always an issue,...