I think Andrew Sullivan has some reading to do. I say this mostly in jest – I hope he doesn’t spend his blog hiatus reading these books. But short of an essay that responds to Sullivan’s understanding of Jesus, history, and liberal democracy, I thought I would offer up a very brief reading list that would contest his position on several major points reflected in his exchange with David Sessions’ post here at Patrol.
The three points at issue for me are these: was Jesus apolitical? Were thinkers like Machiavelli and Locke setting up something called liberalism? (Let alone modern, liberal, democracy?) Finally, does modern democratic liberalism have no metaphysical basis? (What does it mean to say, as Sullivan does in his response to Sessions, that liberalism requires no metaphysical principles, only conservative ones?) Given what’s at stake here, these questions deserve careful scrutiny. And while I’m sure Sullivan has given sustained attention to these questions, I can’t help but wonder how he would respond to the arguments of these scholars, each of whom would contest a central element of his political and religious outlook.
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