Equity is a roguish thing; for law we have a measure, know what to trust to; equity is according to the conscience of him that is chancellor; and as that is larger or narrower, so is the equity. It is…
Tuesday nights in Indianapolis, I have been teaching an introduction to the classic literature of Judaism. This last Tuesday, the topic was the Talmud, an amazing book, unique in world literature, but a book which has been closed, sometimes partially,…
Democracy emerged in the West as a consequence of secularization. Religion lost its privileged position in human life, we embraced material science and secular philosophy, and democracy began to take hold. Religion is imperious, intolerant of answers other than its…
The great 17th century constitutionalist John Selden was not a man of the cloth but he was convinced that religion served as the basis of societal order. Unlike his contemporary Thomas Hobbes, who famously believed that the natural order was…
While militant ideologies can appear as a source of stark clarity in an often-muddled world, their excesses only serve to erode the tradition of liberty. Amid historical instability, people often sought the simple security of absolutes. Thomas Hobbes insisted that…
Today, Saturday, marks the anniversary of the passing in 1994 of an extraordinary man, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, better known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He was first and foremost a leader, someone who understood people very deeply, who could see…
“Parliament” comes from the French and has a root meaning of talking. It is the body empowered to speak on important matters with the monarch. Speech is at the core of its powers. To be able to speak with the…
Conservatives are interested in conserving things. The past has meaning in the present. Anti-conservative rhetoric often dismisses this interest by arguing that the past is merely a dead hand and it must be left behind. The proper reply to such…
“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” sang Joni Mitchell many a decade ago. It’s a very old theme. We are barely two chapters into Genesis when the harmony and union of the Beginning is a thing of…
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