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Reason, Faith, and Politics
Essays in Honor of Werner J. Dannhauser
Arthur M. Melzer (Anthology Editor) , Robert P. Kraynak (Anthology Editor) , Alan Arkush (Contributor) , Walter Berns (Contributor) , Francis Fukuyama (Contributor) , Leslie Friedman Goldstein (Contributor) , Lew Hinchman (Contributor) , Robert Kraynak (Contributor) , Ralph Lerner (Contributor) , Arthur Melzer (Contributor) , Jeremy Rabkin (Contributor) , William Shapiro (Contributor)
Reason, Faith, and Politics
Essays in Honor of Werner J. Dannhauser
Arthur M. Melzer (Anthology Editor) , Robert P. Kraynak (Anthology Editor) , Alan Arkush (Contributor) , Walter Berns (Contributor) , Francis Fukuyama (Contributor) , Leslie Friedman Goldstein (Contributor) , Lew Hinchman (Contributor) , Robert Kraynak (Contributor) , Ralph Lerner (Contributor) , Arthur Melzer (Contributor) , Jeremy Rabkin (Contributor) , William Shapiro (Contributor)
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Description
Behind many of the hottest political issues of the current moment -abortion, stem-cell research, Intelligent Design, Islamic fundamentalism-stands a resurgence of the centuries-old contest between religion and the Enlightenment.
In such circumstances, a volume of essays honoring the thought of Werner J. Dannhauser is particularly timely. An expert on Nietzsche and Jewish political thought, Dannhauser's abiding concern was the issue of "reason, faith, and politics." Does secular rationalism, as promoted by the Enlightenment, provide an adequate basis for moral and political life? Or does the modern state ultimately require religious habits and beliefs even while tending to undermine them? Is the emergence of the religious right, then, a necessary and salutary phenomenon? Or does it pose dangers to our liberal constitution and to minority religious communities, such as Jews and Muslims? In short, is Enlightenment rationalism helpful or harmful to social life? And is Biblical religion necessary for or in tension with American liberal democracy? Questions such as these, which have concerned Dannhauser throughout a long scholarly career, have recently reemerged as front-page issues.
In addressing this theme, the eleven essays comprising the present volume-by such scholars as Francis Fukuyama, Walter Berns, Jeremy Rabkin, and Ralph Lerner-range widely over Western intellectual history, from classical philosophy and ancient Israel, to the Medieval period and the Renaissance, to Nietzsche, and to contemporary neoconservative thought.
Table of Contents
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction
Part 4 I Reason: The Basis of Society or a Danger to Society?
Chapter 5 1 On the Inherent Tension between Reason and Society
Chapter 6 2 Dispersal by Design: The Author's Choice
Chapter 7 3 Liberalism Before Disenchantment: Why Jean Bodin Advocated Witch-Hunting
Chapter 8 4 Nietzsche and the Pre-Socratics
Chapter 9 5 The Death of God and the Eternal Feminine
Part 10 II Faith: The Role of Religion in Political Authority
Chapter 11 6 Christianity and American Democracy: Harmony or Hostility?
Chapter 12 7 Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and the Jewish Religion
Chapter 13 8 Preserving the Third Temple: Geopolitics and Israel's Permanent Crisis
Part 14 II Politics: Constitutionalism and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies
Chapter 15 9 A Brief History of Neo-Conservative Foreign Policy
Chapter 16 10 The Rule of Law and the European Union
Chapter 17 11 Ancients and Moderns: The Emergence of Modern Constitutionalism
Product details
Published | Feb 15 2008 |
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Format | Hardback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 236 |
ISBN | 9780739118351 |
Imprint | Lexington Books |
Dimensions | 9 x 6 inches |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Werner Dannhauser is a remarkable teacher, and has received the fitting tribute of a remarkable collection of essays by his students and colleagues. Dannhauser once remarked of the late Leo Strauss that his greatest accomplishment as a teacher was to enable his students to become themselves, and on the evidence of this collection Strauss succeeded in transmitting that capacity to Dannhauser himself. These essays range widely over subjects both philosophical and political, Jewish and non-Jewish, Nietzschean and non-Nietzschean, American and European or Israeli. What they share in common is that each is a labor of love, each addresses a fundamental question, and each represents a distinguished scholar at his or her best.
Clifford Orwin, University of Toronto
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The essays in Reason, Faith, and Politics are thoughtful and learned explorations of rationalism, religion, and political life before and after Nietzsche, a fitting tribute to the work and teaching of Werner Dannhauser.
Nathan Tarcov, University of Chicago
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A rich, wide-ranging, and yet well-focused collection of essays, which reflects and does honor to the breadth and depth of Werner Dannhauser's uniquely insightful and fertile reflections on the political dialectic of reason and faith.
Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin