In the tributes to Chuck Colson so far, I haven’t seen much written on his place as one of American evangelicalism’s brightest and most industrious students of political philosophy. That’s natural, of course, given all the other things there are to write about, but I’d like to note this aspect of his work. I had the honor of having lunch with Colson once; we were supposed to talk shop, but we spent most of the time discovering our shared passion for political philosophy. I was shocked by the raw power of his mind (I think everyone who met him was), but also by the depth of his learning in this field. Hearing him give quickie radio commentaries on the latest nonsense in Washington, you would never guess—or at least I hadn’t—that this was a man whose eyes would light up in excitement at the chance to discuss the relationship between Aristotelian and Augustinian influences in Locke’s philosophy. But so he was.
The article below has been in the works for months, since long before Colson’s health turned. I wish I could rewrite the whole thing as some kind of tribute to him. Nonetheless, I regard the timing of the publication as providential. Colson exemplified how valuable political philosophy is when it actively informs political practice, and I can’t think of a better tribute to him than to start a conversation about the implicit political philosophy that I think has stood behind American evangelicals’ activism since their movement began.
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