Once again, a couple recommendations curated from the First Things website.
Peter Leithart offers a welcome reminder of the necessarily public, and therefore political, nature of the ministry of Word and sacrament in "Pastors Don't Need to Enter Politics–They're Already in It."
In the October issue of First Things, Yuval Levin observed that freedom from constraint is an impoverished political ideal because what every republic (and especially the American one) needs is a mature citizenry able to exercise its liberty responsibly. "Taking the Long Way" argues that libertarianism corrodes a free society if it does not allow room for the institutions which inculcate that social and spiritual maturity. I am reminded of James Madison's words in Memorial and Remonstrance:
Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the general authority; much more must every man who becomes a member of any particuar Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign.
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