The Twilight of the American Enlightenment (24 page)

13. I am not saying, of course, that no one in the Protestant religious right addressed such issues, only that the popular calls for a return to a “Christian America” contributed to a characteristic neglect of that issue. See Conclusion, note 8.

Conclusion: Toward a More Inclusive Pluralism

1. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., “Walter Lippmann: The Intellectual v. Politics,” in
Walter Lippmann and His Times,
Marquis Childs
and James Reston, eds. (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1959), 222; David Riesman,
The Lonely Crowd
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961 [1950]), 37.

2. The term “the noble dream” is from Peter Novick,
That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

3. Thomas S. Kuhn,
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).

4. C. S. Lewis,
Surprised by Joy: the Shape of My Early Life
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1995 [1955]), 201.

5. I provide much fuller argumentation for these views regarding higher education in my book
The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

6. For mainstream America's failure to address religious diversity, see David Sehat,
The Myth of American Religious Freedom
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), which provides a valuable overview and interpretation of these issues.

7. A good indication of their inattention to religion is found in Daniel Roger's
The Age of Fracture
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011). The subject of how to deal with religious diversity arose only indirectly in this impressively comprehensive recounting of mainstream intellectual trends of the late twentieth century.

8. Since the 1980s, a good bit of the recent thought on the topic of religious and cultural diversity has come from Roman Catholic thinkers. Philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, for instance, offers important perspectives on intellectual pluralism in
Three Rival Versions of Moral Inquiry
(Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990). Richard John Neuhaus, a convert from Lutheranism in 1990, wrote much on the topic, most famously,
The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1986). He also provided a neoconservative forum for discussing such subjects in his intellectual journal,
First Things
, founded in 1990.

Protestant conservatives as well as Catholics have made recent contributions to the discussion. A nice sampling is found in Hugh Heclo and Wilfred M. McClay, eds.,
Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). The necessities of practical politics have also forced attention to the issue. E. J. Dionne Jr. remarks in the Foreword to that work that the goal expressed by political strategist Ralph Reed, of simply asking for “a place at the table,” “represents a true triumph of religious pluralism” (p. xiv).

For an account of how nuanced views of Christians on such topics are eclipsed by simplistic populist views, see Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson,
The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).

9. For understanding Kuyper in his own time, see the excellent biography by James D. Bratt,
Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2013).

10. Abraham Kuyper,
Principles of Sacred Theology
, trans. J. Hendrik De Vries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1980 [1898]), 150–159.

11. Ibid. Cf. “Common Grace in Science” (1901), in
Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader
, James D. Bratt, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998),
441–460.

12. Kuyper,
Principles of Sacred Theology
.

13. For another introduction to the views I am endorsing here, see James W. Skillen,
Recharging the American Experiment: Principled Pluralism for Genuine Civil Community
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994). For a briefer summary, see Corwin Smidt, “The Principled Pluralist Perspective,” in
Church, State and Public Justice: Five Views,
P. C. Kemeny, ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007), 127–153. The Center for Public Justice website provides an extensive bibliography on the subject at www.cp justice.org/content/christianity-politics-bibliography. Regarding the Court's recommendations for objective study of religion in
Abington Township v. Schempp
(1963), see Warren A. Nord's dis
cussion of such opinions and of the problem of the biases of such “neutrality” in
Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 236–261.

14. For the background of the epistemological differences between the American conservative Protestant commonsense heritage and Kuyper's outlook, see “The Evangelical Love Affair with Enlightenment Science” in George Marsden,
Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1991), 122–152. The creation science movement is the best example of conservative Protestant claims that objective scientific study will support traditional interpretations of the Bible.

15. On “mediating institutions,” cf. Richard J. Mouw,
Abraham Kuyper: A Short and Personal Introduction
(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2011)
,
42–44.

16. For example, Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Jacobsen, eds.,
The American University in a Postsecular Age
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

17. See, for instance, John Schmalzbauer and Kathleen Mahoney, “Religion and Knowledge in the Post-Secular Academy,” in
The Post-Secular in Question: Religion in Contemporary Society
, Philip S. Gorski, David Kyuman Kim, and Jonathan Van Antwerpen, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 215–248.

18. See David Swartz,
Moral Minority: The Evangelical Left in and Age of Conservatism
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). For a nice sampling of the variety of views that have been shaping evangelical outlooks, see P. C. Kemeny, ed.,
Church, State and Public Justice: Five Views
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2007).

Index

Abortion, opposition to,
136
,
138
,
139
,
141

Academics,
4
,
16
,
159
,
176

Adams, John,
xxi

Adams, John Quincy,
19

Adler, Mortimer,
47

Advertising,
36
,
87
,
93

African Americans,
63
,
64
,
67
,
152
,
174

Allport, Gordon,
40

American Century,
xxxii
,
104

American enlightenment,
xv
,
xx
,
127
,
149
,
168
,
172

    
cultural arrangements of,
xxiv–xxv

    
importance
of,
xxii–xxiii

    
inadequacies of,
175

American Revolution,
xxxiii
,
41
,
121
,
125
,
142
,
146

Anti-Catholicism,
52
,
107
,
138
,
159
,
161

Anti-Communism,
7
,
115

Anti-intellectualism,
xxv
,
16
,
17
,
18–19
,
21
,
62
,
177

Anticommunism,
xxv
,
xxxiii
,
140

Arendt, Hannah,
11
,
12
,
15
,
23

Arts,
4
,
7
,
166

Atomic Energy Commission,
102

Augustinian Christians,
xxviii
,
165
,
166
,
170

Authoritarianism,
25
,
53
,
54
,
141

Autonomy,
22
,
31
,
32
,
40
,
42
,
98
,
112

Ayer, A. J.,
74

Baldwin, James,
12
,
13
,
15

Baptists,
xxiv
,
98
,
146
,
152
,
159

Barlow, Peter: cartoon by,
121
(fig.)

Barrett, William,
71
,
72
,
73
,
75–76

Barton, David,
147

Becker, Carl,
51

Behavioral psychology,
77–78
,
81

Bell, Daniel,
58
,
130

Bellah, Robert,
94

Benedict, Ruth,
88

Bible reading,
xii
,
109
,
133
,
148
,
149

Biblical teachings,
100
,
118–119
,
146
,
168

Black Power,
67

Blake, Eugene Carlson,
111

Blanshard, Paul,
52
,
107

Blue laws,
109

Brokaw, Tom,
xii

Buckley, William F.,
xviii
,
52–53

Calvinism,
91

Camus, Albert,
29

Capitalism,
8
,
30
,
93

    
commoditization/objectification of,
26

    
technocracy of,
95

Carnegie Foundation,
xxxvi

Carter, Jimmy,
138
,
139

Catholicism,
53
,
109
,
137
,
161
,
176

    
democracy and,
52

    
fascism and,
52

    
freedom and,
52

Catholics,
xviii
,
xxvii
,
18
,
97
,
110
,
139
,
152
,
159
,
161
,
178

    
abortion and,
136
,
141

    
censorship and,
89

    
consensus and,
63

    
Equal Rights Amendment and,
137

    
ethnic,
xi
,
63

    
immigrant,
160

    
urban political power and,
62

Censorship,
xii
,
89
,
138

Center for Public Justice,
170

Change,
xvi
,
84
,
86
,
171

    
cultural,
136
,
139

    
historical,
129–130

    
incremental,
63
,
64

    
social,
38
,
63

Child rearing,
ix
,
90–92

Christian establishment,
125
,
134

Christianity,
xxvi
,
18
,
100
,
103
,
109
,
118
,
140
,
142
,
146
,
147
,
149
,
168

    
African American,
112

    
conservative,
173

    
education and,
99

    
fragmentation of,
18

    
Islam and,
173

    
modernist,
100–104
,
123

    
natural science and,
xxv

    
progressive,
124

    
protestant,
xxiii
,
xxiv
,
99
,
133
,
157
,
177

    
recognition of,
xxvi

    
religious right and,
19

    
science/thought and,
101

    
secular humanism and,
142

Church-state separation,
157
,
158
,
159
,
161

Civil rights,
xvii
,
59
,
63–64
,
65

Civil rights movement,
62
,
63
,
67
,
127

Civility,
14
,
47
,
173

Civilization,
xii
,
xiii
,
xiv
,
xv
,
xvi
,
xx
,
20
,
27
,
80

    
democratic,
45

    
priorities of,
105

    
public conversations on,
xviii

    
quality of,
2
,
3
,
15

    
rebuilding,
17

    
technological,
36

    
thinking about,
2
,
6

    
voluntary,
xxiv

Class,
13
,
159

Cold War,
xii
,
xvii
,
xxxiii
,
17
,
22
,
45
,
61
,
108
,
127

    
anxieties of,
131

    
privatization and,
106

Commercialism,
xxv
,
xxxviii
,
42
,
87

Common grace,
169
,
172

Communism,
xxxiv
,
xxxviii
,
108
,
115
,
130
,
133

Community,
9
,
42
,
55
,
57
,
59
,
132

    
building,
46–47
,
51

    
ethnoreligious,
xi
,
156
,
160
,
174

    
evangelical,
176
,
177

    
intellectual,
139

    
moral,
51

    
virtues of,
x–xi

Como, Perry,
7

Conformity,
26
,
27
,
29
,
38
,
39
,
42
,
43
,
70
,
111

    
nonconformity and,
92

    
warnings against,
37

Congregationalists,
xxiv
,
98

Consensus,
xvi
,
xix
,
xxii
,
xxiv
,
xxvi
,
xxviii
,
59
,
63
,
145
,
152
,
172

    
building,
46–47
,
154
,
167

    
Christian,
125
,
143
,
144

    
cultural,
60
,
155
,
161
,
173

    
domestic,
108

    
liberal,
44
,
127

    
life/politics and,
103

    
national,
1
,
100
,
167

    
public,
1
,
167
,
174

Conservative Catholics,
138
,
161

Conservative Christians,
162
,
171

    
Protestant establishment and,
150
,
161

Conservative evangelicals,
108
,
128
,
129
,
139

    
Equal Rights Amendment and,
137

Conservatives,
xix
,
168
,
171

Consumerism,
11
,
12
,
37
,
42

Corruption,
5–6
,
115

Counterculture,
95
,
127
,
135
,
139

Cultural analysis,
xiv
,
xv
,
xvii
,
xxv
,
75
,
141

Cultural crisis,
xiii
,
xvii
,
102
,
104
,
129
,
145

Cultural revolution,
xvi
,
xvii
,
10

Cultural trends,
98
,
137
,
140

Culture,
xii
,
xv
,
xxii
,
xxvi
,
xxxvii
,
81
,
95
,
105
,
139
,
156

    
American,
ix
,
97
,
134

    
bureaucratic,
93

    
class,
xxv

    
commercial,
150

    
consensus,
xvi
,
152

    
economic,
121

    
emerging,
94

    
heart of,
5

    
high,
8
,
10
,
11–12
,
16

    
homogenized,
8

    
levels of,
15

    
liberal,
44
,
51
,
92
,
120
,
171
,
174

    
mainstream,
84
,
98
,
99
,
101
,
152
,
158
,
162
,
174
,
177

    
mass,
xiii
,
7–16
,
19
,
21
,
127

    
modern,
14
,
23
,
24
,
75
,
119

    
political,
121
,
171

    
producing,
12
,
18

    
public,
45
,
174

    
religion and,
151
,
162
,
163

    
secular,
127
,
151
,
162

    
shared,
14

    
television and,
7

    
youth,
x

Culture wars,
xxvi
,
16
,
125
,
140
,
145
,
162
,
170
,
178

    
politics of,
128

    
stereotypes of,
176

Curtis, Tony,
12

Dahl, Robert,
61

Darwin, Charles,
48
,
49