Presidents are compelled to use the language of exceptionalism in two important ways. If our presidents are to be believed,…
Obama and the end of exceptionalism
American politics
The Niebuhr connection: Obama’s deep pragmatism
One of the most important elements of Obama's pragmatism is the sense that "hope" can only be "realistic" if it…
A genuine “theologico-political” phenomenon
Most observers, even the otherwise sober-minded journal The Economist, agree that the anticipation and then election of Barack Obama to…
Politics and prophecy as vocations
In my previous post, I outlined the civil religion that Robert Bellah and Sacvan Bercovitch both identify, though with opposed…
Civil religion, prophecy and Obama
For some scholars, "religion" gives the social cohesion and moral purpose without which a merely self-interested and fragmenting liberalism could…
Liberty and liberty together
A nation is not an indifferent condition for the happiness and social relatedness of its citizens, but serves as a…
The primacy of practice
Here's an "old thing" which relates, I think, to President Obama and the debate about civil religion---the primacy of practice.…
Obama’s service problem
In what has become something of an American tradition, President Barack Obama asked us to rediscover a "spirit of service"…
Choosing our better history
Obama performed some imperative, long overdue work in bidding us "to choose our better history." In doing so, he recognized…
Obama as public theologian: Old wine in new wineskins
Although comparisons between Obama and Lincoln are surely overstated---our current president has not yet shown either the rhetorical or intellectual…