"The Politics of God" by Mark Lilla from the NY Times Magazine is a secularist's account of the nexus of religion and politics. that is firmly rebutted today in"It must be the end of secularism" by Spengler at AsiaTimes where the pompous faux rationalist gets his due. Spengler goes through point by point to debunk the faulty factual and logical issues raised by Lilla and concludes that Lilla must be stuck in the 17th century and hasn't put forth evidence of the tyranny of Christianity - merely his dislike of it:
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. The adept readers of Professor Lilla's essay, the diehards of liberal secularism, know that Christianity is the enemy, no matter how docile, peaceful, quiescent and non-threatening it might appear. Christianity is guilty until proven innocent; the peaceful intentions of all Christian denominations toward one another and to non-Christian religions merely disguise an irrepressible urge toward violence, in the perverse view of the Lilla-Putans.
I felt it was a very bad article! Lilla fails to understand history and makes up a convenient new category of 'political theology' instead of tackling the irelationship between politics and ideology and understanding what theology is. Not to mention his treatment of morality which he separates from religion so that he can attack religion. The article is flawed on many accounts. For more you can check my blog http://paswonky.blogspot.com
Posted by: F | August 27, 2007 at 07:56 AM