Platonic Cities and Animal Kingdoms: Reviews of Stephen R. L. Clark

by Andrew Kuiper Stephen R. L. Clark. Cities and Thrones and Powers: Towards a Plotinian Politics. Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2022. 328 pp., $22.95. Stephen R. L. Clark. How the Worlds Became: Philosophy & the Oldest Stories. Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2023. 340 pp., $19.95. There has never been a time when Plato’s dialogues lacked readers interested… Read More Platonic Cities and Animal Kingdoms: Reviews of Stephen R. L. Clark

Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights: Of Rights and Rites

by Andrew Kuiper This is the third installment of Kuiper’s review: part 1 and part 2. For somewhat understandable reasons, the French Revolution has acquired a reputation for inaugurating an era of aggressive, and aggressively secular, revolutionary politics. Many religious conservatives, particularly Roman Catholics fond of Donoso Cortes, Joseph de Maistre, and the counter-revolutionary tradition… Read More Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights: Of Rights and Rites

Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights (part 2)

by Andrew Kuiper Any genealogy of modernity that fails to explain the development and dominance of political economy risks irrelevance. Economics is one of the master-discourses of our age and evaluating how and why it emerged has always been a site of bitter contestation. The framing of the narrative already includes certain models of human… Read More Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights (part 2)

Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights: Introduction

by Andrew Kuiper Editorial Note: In the following series, Andrew Kuiper continues his own reflection on the roots of concepts like religious liberty that we generally associate with the modern world. This series also develops some earlier posts at the Regensburg Forum on how careful interconfessional inquiry about early modern theology and about the Augustinian… Read More Review of Dan Edelstein’s On the Spirit of Rights: Introduction

The Beautiful Madness of Vladimir Soloviev: Russian Wisdom and Dignitatis Humanae

by Andrew Kuiper ‘Bella idea, ma fuor d’un miracolo, é cosa impossible’ (a beautiful idea but, short of a miracle, impossible to carry out).  This was the response of Pope Leo XIII to Vladimir Soloviev’s (1853-1900) program for ecclesial-political unity between East and West. It is certainly an understandable skepticism given the sprawling scope of… Read More The Beautiful Madness of Vladimir Soloviev: Russian Wisdom and Dignitatis Humanae