Douthat's “The Decadent Society” Misses the Mark
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“Douthat’s central argument is intriguing…it’s quite likely that the Western neoliberal order will keep limping along for the foreseeable future.
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Why the West Lost Its Nerve
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Veith considers R. R. Reno’s book, Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West, which argues that the west overcorrected in reaction to the nationalism of the Nazi movement. He also takes a look at James R. Rogers’ analysis of the book. - Cranach
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“In The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success, Douthat pulls few punches”
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“Douthat employs decadence as a diagnosis of ‘economic stagnation, institutional decay, and cultural and intellectual exhaustion at a high level of material prosperity and technological development.’” - TGC
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Podcast: What's with "Christian Atheists"?
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“Esther O’Reilly joins Shane Morris to discuss the growing number of atheist or agnostic intellectuals—like Jordan Peterson, Tom Holland, and Douglas Murray—who reject Christianity’s historical and faith claims yet also value the faith’s contributions to Western civilization and our shared humanity, to the point that they defend Christianity against those who would ban it from the public square.” - Breakpoint
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Christianity’s Influence on World History Is Real but Easily Overstated
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“Tom Holland’s Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World is a substantial work that makes a straightforward case. In Holland’s view, the teachings of Jesus constituted an ethical revolution that would gradually transform human consciousness, to the extent that we today find it hard to imagine credible alternative systems.” - Christianity Today
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What happens when reason and faith are separated: An interview with Samuel Gregg
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“In a new interview on his book, Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization, Samuel Gregg lays out how crucial the integration of reason and faith is to the West and what specific consequences result when reason and faith are separated from each other.” - Acton
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Responding to Criticisms of Christianity
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“Hardly any comment thread on this blog is without someone blaming Christians and Christianity for war, slavery, oppression, sexism, intolerance…. Bring up the value of Lutheran theology and you can count on accusations that Luther is responsible for Hitler and the Holocaust. So how should Christians respond to such criticisms?” - Gene Veith
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Christian Persecution and the Origins of Religious Freedom
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Tertullian “asserted that it is a ‘fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions.’ He was the first to argue for religious toleration as a general principle and, in so doing, coined the phrase ‘freedom of religion’ (libertas religionis).” - IFWE
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It’s time to revisit Fahrenheit 451
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“…it tells the story of a dystopian society where all books are banned and people pass their time staring at screens while barely talking to one another. Sound a little like 2019?” - Washington Examiner
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