In the previous essay I argued that rights are not "endowed by the Creator." Rather, liberty is "endowed by the Creator," and in turn, there are a pair of dependent principles that grow out of liberty: rights and responsibilities. The consequence of liberty is that I have rights for myself and responsibilities for others. The …
Month: February 2018
Liberty and Freedom
In Enlightenment political theory (this is the political theory that is foundational to the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution) the two primary natural "endowments" are life and liberty (and yes, the Declaration adds Happiness, but that's another story). Given the history of American jurisprudence, the most appropriate definition of liberty is "the right to …
Hayek on Social Justice
When I read this I had an aha moment. It summarizes very well one of my discomforts with social justice. Social Justice makes sense as a political ideal within a closed community of like-minded people but cannot coherently be pursued across an abstract order of people who interact with and relate to one another not …
Lent, Knowing God, and Holiness
With Lent just around the corner I am once again pondering the difference between knowing God and knowing about God. In the circles in which I grew up and was educated, this was a distinction that was not carefully made. I think especially of the books that were particularly celebrated on this subject such as …
Moses Pt. 3: He Actually Is Quite Special
Moses and Joshua together prefigure Christ; because they prefigure Christ, they also prefigure the Christian life. There is genius in distinguishing the two story arcs in the Pentateuch and Joshua Because each pictures something quite different that is happening in our life. We experience it at the same time and therefore tend to merge the …
Moses, Pt. 2: Eternal Security
On Reddit I follow a couple of Orthodox subreddits and a question that comes up repeatedly is that of eternal security. How can I know that I am saved? Do the Orthodox believe in eternal security? Or some other variation on this theme. In the Protestant group in which I grew up (and it seems …
Just Another Jim 