Important New Book on American Politics

http://www.libertylawsite.org/2014/03/05/americas-way-back/

Separation of Powers Affirmed

 

Cameron, Maxwell A.  Strong Constitutions: Social-Cognitive Origins of the Separation of Powers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

In this imaginative and readable book, Cameron (University of British Columbia) provides a learned defense of the separation of powers.  While not disputing the importance of the separation of powers as a source of restraint in democratic theory, the author contends that the concept allows for collective action, which can promote and sustain democratic regimes.  Other conceptions of the separation of powers are integrated into his critique, as well as the importance of divided power in promoting the survivability of any government.  The separation of powers, if rightly understood, actually strengthens regimes.  The refinement of democratic institutions is also based on the “social-cognitive” aspects of politics, especially the use of language that encourages “collective organization” (p. 19); and, the value of a written constitution is yet another extension of this analysis.  Other factors in addition to language, including collective bargaining and “democratized” technologies (p. 51), can aid the evolution of the “social-cognitive” contribution to the separation of powers.  For the non-specialist, the book also contains many useful assessments of a wide range of political thinkers, from Aristotle to F. A. Hayek.  The tome is one of the most useful defenses of the separation of powers to appear in many years.

Thinking about King the Preacher and Boston Personalist Philosopher

Here is one of my three or four published defenses of Dr. King, or more specifically, as Richard Lischer describes him, the "Preacher King." And even more to the point, I prefer the Philosopher King, the Boston Personalist (Methodist-influenced) thinker. He does not need my affirmation, and I am from a different theological and religious tradition, but I share some common ground with him.

http://books.google.com/books?id=YiU_sieYR6YC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=%22lee+cheek%22+%22james+cone%22&source=bl&ots=zA67PzncPO&sig=QD5qUgKfEwBFIZVrpB1jvxix31s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E8bdUoyCLZSvsAT7toA4&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22lee%20cheek%22%20%22james%20cone%22&f=false

Burke's Perennial Liberty

http://www.libertylawsite.org/2013/12/23/edmund-burkes-perennial-liberty/

Christmas With A Point

We need not assume the mantle of an anti-materialist to appreciate that a certain degree of social equilibrium is dismissed or ignored during the holidays, allowing for a lack of societal and personal restraint.  Many otherwise normal considerations are subsumed into the pursuit of a "happy" holiday.  All too often this demands we forgo normal obligations and long-held practices in the pursuit of temporal exuberance.  Of course, the holy seasons of Advent and Christmas are typically approached with a spirit of reverence and excitement, but when inherited customs are displaced, we provide an opportunity for other influences to prevail.  A cherished, but potentially wearisome tradition that can become corrupted is the giving of gifts.  The best gifts should encourage the family member or friend to live life to the fullest extent possible, while also pursuing the higher potentialities of their existence and their faith. 

After decades of giving presents that were usually dispensed with, or discarded in a few days, or "regifted" to aid another's frenzied pursuits, I became determined to give gifts with a point, or at least gifts that would connect the recipient with the larger social and political tradition of which they are part.  The gifts that are most likely to endure and fulfill the stated goal are books and fountain pens.  Gissing’s Ryecroft preferred books to food, a great book as a gift can provide sustenance that no other gift can.  A fountain pen reminds us of the power of writing, allows the writer to engage in his or her craft with a closeness unmatched by a keyboard or ballpoint, and is a novel and exceedingly pleasurable gift for anyone.  Here are some gifts with a point you might want to consider:

 

 

 

 

 

 

1-André Gushurst-Moore’s The Common Mind (Angelico Press, 2013) provides an elegantly written and philosophically convincing survey of the worldview Burke inherited and that he helped transmit to posterity.  The common mind, or Christian humanism, is understood from both the perspective of a philosophical inheritance and as a perpetual challenge to contemporary life as well; as a social and political tradition dependent on the ennobling of the good, the true, and beautiful; and, the exhibition of personal restraint, and an affirmation of the transcendent nature of existence.  Gushurst-Moore begins his defense of this tradition by engaging in a process of retrogression, examining the central figures who affirmed the common mind, beginning with Thomas More and concluding with Russell Kirk.

 

 

 

2-The new edition of Russell Kirk’s Prospects for Conservatives, the first imprint of ImaginativeConservative Books, should be on every Christmas list!  The tome contains a new introduction by Dr. Brad Birzer, and a new subtitle.   As one who possessed the largest and last remaining collection of the earlier version of this book, A Program for Conservatives, and shared the books with his Duke Divinity School colleagues in the early 1980s (much to their dismay),  this republication is an event of great and enduring importance.  (For the record, I gave the remaining hundred copies of the book that I purchased from a centenarian in California to the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.)

 

 

 3-Of interest to students of theology, regardless of one’s persuasion, is yet another monumental contribution by Thomas C. Oden.  John Wesley’s Teaching: Volume 3, Pastoral Theology (Zondervan, 2013) affirms Wesley as a central figure in the Reformation, but more importantly, as a defender of classical, consensual Christianity.

 

 

  

4-If you seek to recover the lost world of prudential political rhetoric, and a time when statesmen outnumbered politicians, you might want to take at Patrick Henry-Onslow Debate: Liberty and Republicanism in American Political Thought (Lexington Books, 2013).  The disputed election of 1824 was one of the most important presidential elections in American history. After an indecisive electoral college vote, the House of Representatives selected John Quincy Adams as president over the more popular war hero, Andrew Jackson. As a result, John C. Calhoun ended up serving as vice-president under Adams. Neither man was comfortable in this situation as they were political rivals who held philosophically divergent views of American constitutional governance. The emerging personal and philosophical dispute between President Adams and Vice-President Calhoun eventually prompted the two men to take up their pens, using the pseudonyms “Patrick Henry” and “Onslow,” in a public debate over the nature of power and liberty in a constitutional republic. The great debate thus arrayed Calhoun’s Jeffersonian republican vision of constitutionally restrained power and local autonomy against Adams’s neo-Federalist republican vision which called for the positive use of inherent power—a view that would become increasingly compelling to future generations of Americans. In the course of this exchange some of the most salient issues within American politics and liberty are debated, including the nature of political order, democracy, and the diffusion of political power. The level of erudition and insight is remarkable.

 5. The Noble Fountain Pen.  My most pointed recommendation concerns the gift of a fountain pen during this holy season.  I prefer vintage pens, especially the old American varieties, Sheaffer, Waterman, and Parker among many others.  There are many traditional pen stores throughout the country that deserve commendation, and one of the best kept secrets in the Southeast is Joe Rodgers Office Supply in Cleveland, Tennessee, in the Chattanooga suburbs.  The owner, Greg Serum, offers the best supply of fountain pens and supplies you will encounter.  On-line sites worth visiting include:

www.fountainpenhospital.com

www.fahrneyspens.com

www.penhero.com

Penhero.com has an encyclopedic list of pen-related links as well that are of great assistance to anyone interesting in fine writing instruments: http://penhero.com/PenBookmarks.htm.

 

Celebrating Russell Kirk's Conservative Mind!

The Conservative Mind’s Continuing Relevance at Sixty by Lee Cheek

by H. Lee Cheek

The Conservative Mind by Dr. Russell Kirk, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, still exerts considerable influence over the intellectual elements of American Conservatism. Dr. H. Lee Cheek delivers a lecture on this book as a for The McConnell Center at the University of Louisville's "Milestones of the 20th Century: Democracy in America" lecture series.

This is part of a series The Imaginative Conservative is publishing in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind. Essays in the series may be found here.

Books mentioned in this lecture may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.  Read more of this post

Lee Cheek | October 23, 2013 at 4:01 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p3FGHd-7Kz

Excellent New History of Political Thought

Nemo, Philippe, A History of Political Ideas from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Duquesne University Press, 2013)

As the first part of a two volume survey of political thought, Nemo (ESCP Europe) approaches the field of study in a manner different from many American texts.  Appealing to readers with “little prior knowledge” (viii) of political thought, the author provides a lucid, engaging introductory volume that will enlighten both the novice and the specialist.  The use of “historical context” (ix), combined with exceedingly accurate interpretations of primary texts, and the absence of ideological frameworks, contributes to the high overall quality of the book.  The work is divided into three long sections: Part One, Ancient Greece; Part Two, Rome; and Part Three, the Christian West.  In the introduction to Part Three a survey to the “political ideas” of the Bible is provided, including an accessible overview of Hebrew political thought.  Important, yet often neglected figures in Christian political thought, including Tertullian, Origen, and many other thinkers, are analyzed succinctly, yet thoughtfully.  This valuable and readable book deserves a wide readership.