Here we enter the necessary if unglamorous world of organizing, of reframing debates and dialogues at every level, of animating…
Not an end, but a beginning
Barack Obama
Common sense
Obama's speeches are glorious. They are a joy to listen to and to read later. He is able to dig…
Toward a universalist exceptionalism
American exceptionalism has been dealt a body-blow. I want to suggest, however, that the variant of exceptionalism that was upset…
Obama and the end of exceptionalism
Presidents are compelled to use the language of exceptionalism in two important ways. If our presidents are to be believed,…
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…
Movement in the right direction
President Obama's much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last Thursday demonstrated once again that he is an extraordinarily…
Obama on Palestine: What new beginning?
Here I want to briefly comment on Obama's discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian question. Two of Obama's statements in particular have…