New Year's Day Reading Suggestion: Michael Novak's City on a Hill

Here's Michael Novak's 2014 essay Caritapolis: A New Global Vision for Christian Social Thought. Novak explains that it would be a shame for people to progress in economic and political liberty but use that liberty to "live like pigs, enslaved to our desires, without reflection and deliberation[.]" He emphasizes "for intermediate steps toward Caritapolis that are of highest importance": cultural humility, the regulative idea of truth, the dignity of the human person, and solidarity. 

First, we must understand that our selves and cultures have more than a few blemishes and warts. "We've got it right, so you fools watch and see how it's done" isn't the most winsome message. I'm a big fan of Western civilization and the United States in particular, and when given the option, people leave more traditional societies for the West at their earliest opportunity.

Second, Novak points to "the regulative idea of truth." Maybe we won't know capital-T Truth on this side of eternity, but it is important to develop rules of evidence and argument for truth-seeking and the conviction that what is acceptable is governed by what is true (maybe even True) or "the whole human race slides that much deeper back into barbarism." Back is important here because civilization is the exception rather than the rule in history.

This, Novak argues, leads to "The Dignity of the Human Person" and later "Solidarity," which has a lot in common with what Adam Smith called "sympathy."

After you've spoken and heard some new thing, give Novak's essay a read. It's brief, and it helps people like us clarify exactly what we're doing and why.