Law and Natural Right: On John 9’s Parable of the Blind Man
John 9 offers us the memorable “parable” of the blind saved by Jesus.[1] The savior teaches us that the saved man was blind from birth “so that…
Hebraic Exceptionalism and Western Exceptionalism
Western civilization is back in vogue, or, at least, is starting to have defenders again in the midst of civilizational malaise, crisis, and desecration. But what is…
Confronting Nihilism: Towards a Political Theory of the Psalms
I. In contradistinction to the efforts directed towards reviving modernity, several attempts to recover the older understanding of a common moral order, grounded in a disciplined habit…
On Technological Utopianism
I propose an inquiry into what Hans Jonas once called the “built-in, automatic utopianism” of our thought and actions. Jonas suggests that this “utopian drift” inheres in…
Recovering Moses: The Contribution of Eric Voegelin and Contemporary Political Science
Introduction The purpose of this essay is to examine the legacy of Moses as a political leader in search of political order. The Mosaic conflict with the…
Martin Luther and the Translation of the Bible into German
The very life of Martin Luther (1483-1546) manifested turbulence, over and over. From his troubled youth in Saxony (Erikson, 1958/1962), through his contretemps against the Roman Catholic…
The Pleasures of Isaiah and Yea Even Also Thereto the Frustrations
Can it be that by looking very hard at something, we sometimes miss what we are staring at? The prophet Isaiah comes into the gospels and the Christian…
Disturbing Revelation: Strauss, Voegelin, and the Bible
Disturbing Revelation: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin, and the Bible. John J. Ranieri. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2009. In Disturbing Revelation: Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin,…