Freedom to Choose
- March/April 2013
- March 1, 2013
I recently read a fascinating article1 on the forces involved in the rise and fall of nations. Author Robert D. Kaplan introduced the concept of "offensive realism," which posits that global powers attain and maintain such a status not through upholding noble democratic principles, nor through mere force. They conquer international rivals by leveraging power
READ MOREMany there be that complain of divine Providence for suffering Adam to transgress. Foolish tongues! When God gave him reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing; he had been else a mere artificial Adam, such an Adam as he is in the motions. We ourselves esteem not of that obedience,
READ MORESeeing the world through the eyes of John Milton would be both supremely enlightening as well as dark beyond all measure. It was likely the many years spent scrawling political pamphlets by candlelight that cost the English poet his eyesight at the age of forty-four, and ensured that the majority of his magnum opus, the
READ MOREIf you asked me to name the greatest rhetoric in American history, several examples would quickly come to mind. I would surely look to the stirring words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, . . . Or just as likely I would recall
READ MOREOne of the worst nightmares would have to be detention in an overcrowded prison without knowing why or for how long. You might have done nothing wrong, but you are treated like a murderer. You know yourself to be innocent, but someone made a mistake. Who? Why? Now imagine that the country in which you
READ MOREWhere there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. Under these fantastic terrors of sect and schism, we wrong the earnest and zealous thirst after knowledge and understanding which God hath stirred up in this
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