Walker Social Conservatism for the Common Good

A Protestant Engagement with Robert P. George
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4335-8066-6
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten

Carl R. Trueman and Other Christian Evangelical Scholars Examine the Life and Work of Renowned Catholic, Social Conservative Thinker Robert P. George Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, is one of the most influential conservative intellectuals of his generation. Among many honors and accolades, George received the US Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush and served as chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Though a Catholic himself, George's influence has transcended traditional religious categories to shape evangelical discourse on politics, ethics, and political philosophy throughout his career.  In this thorough introduction and careful analysis of George's work for Protestant audiences, editor Andrew T. Walker gathers essays from high profile evangelical writers and academics-including Carl R. Trueman, Hunter Baker, Jennifer Marshall Patterson, and Scott Klusendorf-to explore subjects such as faith and reason, George's New Natural Law theory, and how to collaborate across ideological lines. Social Conservatism for the Common Good helps Christian evangelicals understand George's philosophy and apply it to their own cultural engagement and public witness. - Biography of Influential Conservative Scholar Robert P. George: Explores the breadth of his political philosophy and activism, as well as his relevance to the evangelical community - Engaging Political Analysis from a Biblical Perspective: With a foreword by US Senator Ben Sasse, this book covers important cultural and academic topics including human rights, social and public ethics, and pro-life issues - Ideal Resource for Evangelical Scholars and Thinkers: Written for pastors, students, and those interested in politics, this robust book appeals to readers of Carl R. Trueman's The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

Andrew T. Walker (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and an associate dean in the School of Theology. He is a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. He resides with his wife and three daughters in Louisville, Kentucky.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Walker, Andrew

Leseproben

Introduction

Tenacious Civility

The Spirit of Robert P. George for Contemporary Times

Andrew T. Walker

“I’m going to make them regret this every day of their lives.”

These were the words that went through the head of the conservative Catholic philosopher Robert P. George after receiving the news that he had been granted tenure at Princeton University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, notorious for its secular atmosphere. He knew he would be a gadfly at Princeton with his unabashed yet genteel and genial social conservatism, but George could not have foreseen at the time just how much he would also thrive and become one of the university’s most famous professors and an intellectual icon within American conservatism.

With a career spanning over thirty years to date and now holding the title of McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Robert P. George is one of the world’s most prominent and respected public intellectuals. Even if others disagree with him, there is no doubt that he is one of the most important living social-conservative thinkers and someone critics must contend with if they wish to live with intellectual honesty. He is taken seriously by friend and foe alike. His stature is that of a grand admiral of social conservatism. If you ever step into his office at the Witherspoon Institute, you’ll see a wall bedecked with awards and accolades. He has been consulted by US presidents, has served on numerous governmental commissions, and has received the Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush.

Alongside a bevy of other public profiles, George’s 2009 profile in The New York Times Magazine called him, to use the article title, “The Conservative-Christian Big Thinker.”1 It is hard to classify George as only one type of scholar. With degrees from Swarthmore College, Harvard Law School, Harvard Divinity School, and Oxford University, he’s known primarily as an analytic legal philosopher. The themes of his work in legal philosophy, however, have necessarily entailed serious incursions into and contributions within the fields of political philosophy, moral philosophy, constitutional law, and even theology. He has made his mark on the academy primarily by advancing a particular form of natural law theory that understands morality as rationally derived from certain “basic goods” that are constitutive of human flourishing (I delve into this subject in depth in chap. 4). From his belief that society can order itself and its laws to obtain these goods, George criticizes secular views of society that would deny the existence or distort the meaning of concrete moral norms and moral goods. Fundamentally, George is animated by an aim to obtain the ideals of the just society—one whose common good is defined by respect for the human person in all its dimensions.

I first became familiar with the thought of Robert P. George sometime in 2007. I somehow came upon The Clash of Orthodoxies and recall thinking to myself how I had never read arguments that were so powerful and clear—and not explicitly religious—while also aligning with biblical ethics. Though I was still very young and largely ignorant of the tradition I was embarking on, I was grasping that the moral convictions of the Bible were based not only on divine rules but on reason as well. In other words, Christians did not believe their morality was intelligible by pure religious fiat alone. Rather, God inscribed reasons that can be grasped as true for the morality he commands. What were those reasons? Ultimately, to glorify himself but also, as a secondary matter, to order a creation within which humans would be able to prosper. These truths are ones I’m still wrestling with more than a decade and a half later, ones I have quite literally given my career to exploring, defending, and expounding. I believe that Christianity is the answer for everything—from how we need salvation to escape God’s wrath to how to live a well-ordered life. Robert P. George’s body of thought helped ignite that spark.

I wish I could remember the details of how I happened upon a book that would become life altering. That is lost to the annals of time, I guess. But books come upon us in ways that change us and help us see the world in fresh, enlivening ways. Though several living individuals have shaped my thinking in immense ways, I must admit that George’s thought is first among equals. I am persuaded by his articulations of natural law and his defenses of the coherence of morality, the dignity of the human person, marriage, and religious liberty, and frankly, I am teaching my students these ideas with evangelical expression and writing and speaking about them in public forums. This, in summary, is the joy of the intellectual tradition: to recognize an indebtedness to systems of thought that have been advanced by prior generations and to carry those patterns forward for the sake of the common good—ultimately all for God’s glory.

I have gotten to know Robert P. George through various connections. From interactions with him when I served at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission to visits to Princeton for workshops at the Witherspoon Institute, I have had the pleasure to get to know George not only as an intellectual but personally. I’m also part of a younger network of scholars, including Ryan T. Anderson and Sherif Girgis, that has arisen out of George’s tutelage. I’ve come to know Dr. George as someone who possesses the virtues of statesmanship, scholarship, and intellectual charity.

I still remember the first time I met him. It was in 2012 when I was working at the Heritage Foundation alongside Ryan T. Anderson. At that time, we were entering the later stages of the Obama administration’s attempts to redefine marriage. The Heritage Foundation was routinely hosting events and seminars to help Capitol Hill staffers learn the truth about what marriage is and why it is worth protecting. George was a mentor to Anderson, and Anderson had brought George to the Heritage Foundation for an event on the necessity of protecting marriage. Given that the event was happening later in the afternoon, George spent the day in a spare office at the Heritage Foundation. I knew he was going to be there, and so I sheepishly approached him and asked him to sign one of the books he had written. He was, of course, unflappably kind. He signed my book, and off I went (I thought to myself, “Don’t be that guy who lingers around bothering him with twenty questions”).

But what strikes one about Robby (as he insists on being called) is how preternaturally down-to-earth he is and how willing he is to invest in a rising generation of intellectuals. You will learn more about his humble origins later in the volume. But from his banjo picking to his collegiality with those across the ideological aisle, George does not carry himself with an air of pride or self-righteousness. He’s laser sharp, and one better be prepared to defend every utterance one makes, as though standing before an interrogator or tribunal. But George makes no cruel put-downs and exudes no hubris, despite his stature. I know this from experience. One personal story serves to illustrate the kind of intellectual Dr. George is—zealous for valuing ideas and truth as virtues in themselves yet also attentive to young voices.

Though I consider myself an advocate for natural law, a few years ago I wrote an article criticizing a particular formulation of natural law around issues of contraception. I still stand by most of my original claims but acknowledge that I could have communicated my argument with greater precision.

Within a day or two, I awoke—bleary-eyed—to see an email from Robert P. George. I opened it with great curiosity to discover an eight-hundred-word rebuttal of my comments. My heart pulsing, then sinking into my stomach, I read as George rebutted my argument line by line. He did so, of course, with characteristic grace. But a few things struck me after reading his comments: (1) he took the time to read the thoughts of a young, ambitious evangelical, which itself is an honor; and (2) he took time to correct. But he did so in a way that invited me to journey with him in the quest toward greater understanding. He was not dismissive. He was not harsh. He didn’t frame his rebuttal with towering Princetonian condescension that one could expect from a respected, accomplished intellectual. He was admonishing and encouraging, as though he was still a student on the journey as well. I came away with this: I had never felt so affirmed in being told I was wrong.

One of the reasons this book is a valuable enterprise is because it focuses not only on the intellectual fruits of George’s work but also just as much on the implications of character and institution building. We need arguments, but we also need right character and the formation of institutions that work to produce both. George embodies this. He has done the work, and as you will read further in this volume, he has also cultivated a character and posture toward academia and truth seeking that is an antidote to the stifling, cruel illiberalism incubating in our day. Moreover, he has invested in younger scholars (he regularly brags about them on Facebook) and has worked tirelessly in the background to form allegiances in defense of “the permanent things”...