James R. Rogers
8 articles
Comments on "Toward an Ecclesiocentric Liberalism"
Professor Peterson – my good friend, Ben – develops a careful account of liberal fear of religion and religious discourse. The “liberalism of fear,” however, means that liberalism jettisons the very resources any society requires to be open and flourish. The irony is that because of the absolutism of Christianity’s…
Jesus Did Not Pray to Avoid the Cross at Gethsemane
Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…
National Identity and Christian Identity
My original essay in this Theopolis Conversation, “ The Ecclesiocentric Alternative to National Conservatism ” addresses two topics. First, I show that the principles of “national conservatism,” as expressed in the Edmund Burke Society’s signature “ Statement of Principles ,” while including much consistent with traditional American conservatism, nonetheless, at…
The Ecclesiocentric Alternative to National Conservativism
Editor’s Note: This essay is an expanded version of an essay first posted on the Law & Liberty website on September 20, 2022. Consistent with its commitment to traditional conservatism, National Conservatism’s “ Statement of Principles ” broadly re-articulates ideals found in older statements such as the 1924 Republican Party…
The Algebra of Church Growth
This short essay makes an obvious point: Church growth is a matter of the rate of entry into a church relative to the rate of exit from that church. Perhaps church growth literature has long recognized that fact. Yet given the greater focus in church – at least in my…
Deuteronomy 17 and the Separation of Powers
In The Crown and the Courts , David C. Flatto traces the development of the idea of judicial independence in Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures – particularly Deuteronomy 17 – from the Second Temple and early rabbinic periods. These periods roughly span 400 BC to 300 AD. Flatto does not…
Gift Economies Aren't So Giving
Oddly, the nature of pre -modern economies plays a central role in today’s policy debate over economic globalization and neo-liberalism. Analysts take ancient non-market economies as the standard against which to measure the economic and social effects of the market system. Scholars compare the distribution of economic goods and services…
On Immigration: A Response to Alastair Roberts
Today’s policy debate over “immigration” draws heavily on beliefs we hold, whether implicitly or explicitly, regarding nationhood and national sovereignty. While the lessons we learn from ancient Israel’s hospitality laws undoubtedly pertain to today’s policy debates over immigration, pertinent lessons for Christian thinking start even earlier in the Bible. First,…