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December 11, 2019

The Virtue of Liberalism

Today, Law & Liberty published the text of my lecture for the Philadelphia Society in October: “Why Economic Nationalism Fails.” The topic for the panel was “Conservatism and the Coming Economy.” Since I’m not a determinist and doubt my own powers of prediction, I focused on what political economy conservatives ought to support in the future, despite worrying trends in the present: Conservatives ought to reaffirm the good of economic liberty, both domestically and internationally. Continue Reading...
December 11, 2019

An encyclical on China and the US?

Sen. Marco Rubio’s recent speech on capitalism and the common good, taking its point of departure in Rerum Novarum, has gotten a good bit of coverage. Yesterday he delivered remarks at the National Defense University and opened with these words: This morning I am honored to speak here at the National Defense University to discuss the defining geopolitical relationship of this century: the one between the United States and China. Continue Reading...
December 10, 2019

How reason and faith complement each other

Faith and reason are mutually reinforcing. When faith and reason are combined, faith is kept from metastasizing into irrationality and reason is kept from becoming overly materialistic. The combination of faith and reason is the foundation of Western Civilization. Continue Reading...
December 09, 2019

Brian Tierney, rest in peace

The world of medieval history suffered a great loss on November 30 with the death of Professor Brian Tierney. Widely recognized as a leading scholar of medieval Western Christianity and how church law and institutions affected the broader culture of Europe, Tierney wrote widely but also deeply on topics ranging from the origins of papal infallibility to how religion shaped the development of constitutionalism. Continue Reading...