Reason, Faith, and Politics

Werner Dannhauser is a remarkable teacher, and has received the fitting tribute of a remarkable collection of essays by his students and colleagues. Dannhauser once remarked of the late Leo Strauss that his greatest accomplishment as a teacher was to enable his students to become themselves, and on the evidence of this collection Strauss succeeded in transmitting that capacity to Dannhauser himself. These essays range widely over subjects both philosophical and political, Jewish and non-Jewish, Nietzschean and non-Nietzschean, American and European or Israeli. What they share in common is that each is a labor of love, each addresses a fundamental question, and each represents a distinguished scholar at his or her best. -- Clifford Orwin, University of Toronto The essays in Reason, Faith, and Politics are thoughtful and learned explorations of rationalism, religion, and political life before and after Nietzsche, a fitting tribute to the work and teaching of Werner Dannhauser. -- Nathan Tarcov, University of Chicago A rich, wide-ranging, and yet well-focused collection of essays, which reflects and does honor to the breadth and depth of Werner Dannhauser's uniquely insightful and fertile reflections on the political dialectic of reason and faith. -- Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin

Arthur Melzer is professor of political science at Michigan State University. Robert Kraynak is professor of political science at Colgate University.

Chapter 1 Table of Contents Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction Part 4 I Reason: The Basis of Society or a Danger to Society? Chapter 5 1 On the Inherent Tension between Reason and Society Chapter 6 2 Dispersal by Design: The Author's Choice Chapter 7 3 Liberalism Before Disenchantment: Why Jean Bodin Advocated Witch-Hunting Chapter 8 4 Nietzsche and the Pre-Socratics Chapter 9 5 The Death of God and the Eternal Feminine Part 10 II Faith: The Role of Religion in Political Authority Chapter 11 6 Christianity and American Democracy: Harmony or Hostility? Chapter 12 7 Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and the Jewish Religion Chapter 13 8 Preserving the Third Temple: Geopolitics and Israel's Permanent Crisis Part 14 II Politics: Constitutionalism and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies Chapter 15 9 A Brief History of Neo-Conservative Foreign Policy Chapter 16 10 The Rule of Law and the European Union Chapter 17 11 Ancients and Moderns: The Emergence of Modern Constitutionalism