Everywhere in Justice Wolterstorff's interest in theological and philosophical history collides with his desire for syllogism, or for causal necessity,…
First things
rational thought
Critique and conviction
The heated exchange in this forum between Stathis Gourgouris and Saba Mahmood raises a basic question about conviction through which the relationship between…
Secular brooding, literary brooding
What's so bad about heteronomous thinking, anyway? Stathis Gourgouris has used the term in several posts here on The Immanent…
Secularism and critique
What are we to think of the idea, entertained by Rawls for a time, that one can legitimately ask of…
An ideal of conscientious engagement
Many political theorists, pundits and even presidential candidates have advocated some variation on the claim that religious and secular reasons…
Religious reasons & secular revelations
That Jürgen Habermas and I probably agree on most fundamental issues does not mean that there are no differences between…
Equal opportunity criticism (affirmative faction)
Heidegger did not need to point out (but he did) that God occupies a hegemonic place as the figure of…
Religious citizens & public reasons
Democratic citizens cannot determine in advance of actual public deliberation the reasons upon which their political decisions ought to be…
Historical notes on the idea of secular criticism
In an essay entitled “Secular Criticism,” the noted literary critic Edward Said wrote that “Criticism...is always situated, it is skeptical,…
Secularism of a new kind
I have long admired Charles Taylor and have read most of what he has written and always found him helpful.…