Steven Frankel

Laurence Berns (1928-2011) was a beloved tutor at St. Johns's College in Annapolis, Maryland for nearly 40 years. His scholarship, including his translation of the Meno and his unpublished but widely circulated translation of Aristotle's Politics, extended his influence far beyond St. John's. His essays on the origins of philosophy, the relation of philosophy and religion, and the American polity have, thanks to their depth and clarity, helped scholars and teachers understand and think through complex questions. Berns' essay on Hobbes, for example, in the History of Political Philosophy is invaluable for teaching Leviathan; another of his essays on Shakespeare's King Lear is among the best introductions to Shakespeare as a political philosopher. So, like many readers, I was surprised by the recent publication (posthumously) of his dissertation, The Political Philosophy of Francis Bacon with Special Attention to the Principles of Foreign Policy, a work originally submitted in 1957.

Interpretations of critically important texts in political philosophy from Greek antiquity to modern times on the tension between human excellence and equality and its possible resolution.
Description
Is it possible to reconcile human excellence with a dedication to equality? Equality and Excellence in Ancient and Modern Political Philosophy explores the meaning, conflict, and potential resolution of the tension between human excellence and equality in the thought of philosophers from Greek antiquity to modern times. Each chapter is devoted to the thought of a particular thinker, and the chapters are arranged chronologically. Interpretations offered here rely on close readings of the major texts by critically important thinkers from Plato, Aristotle and Xenophon in antiquity to a broad range of modern thinkers from Spinoza to Rawls.

Prof. Stephen Strehle’s recent study suggests that modern politics is informed by secularism, which tends to promote hostility toward religion and the desire to purge religion from the public sphere. This essay considers one of the founding documents of secularism and modern political thought, Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise. Spinoza’s account is ambiguous: his theology raises doubts about the truth of revelation even as he argues that salvation, as taught by the Bible, requires
the practice of caritas. Spinoza also attempts to separate religion and politics. He grounds political life on universal natural rights and directs it toward the pursuit of comfort and security rather than salvation. This teaching appears to neglect the extraordinary possibilities and peaks of human life, both intellectual and spiritual. Spinoza’s account appears to support Prof. Stehle’s concern that such a single-minded focus on material comfort will lead ultimately to a debasement of humanity, and a
confusion or denial of the distinction between high and the low.

Spinoza presents a critique of biblical religion that culminates in a civil religion, which leaves ultimate sovereignty to the state in all matters of religious belief while presenting the general guidelines for acceptable theological views. For the most part, Spinoza’s account emphasizes freedom and toleration—with one notable exception, his critique of miracles. Spinoza insists on the complete rejection of miracles along with the consequences of such a rejection, including the belief in providence and transcendence. Scholars have struggled to explain why Spinoza wishes to demolish the belief in miracles, and more generally, how his critique contributes to his overall political project. Frankel’s purpose in chapter 5 is to explain Spinoza’s critique of miracles in light of his political project. As Frankel shows, Spinoza hopes to replace older superstitions with newer ones, including the belief in progress.

This book highlights the persistent American fascination with the cultural, linguistic, and political history of France. The chapters themselves are the fruit of ongoing dialogue between faculty and students from several French Universities and Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Most of the chapters originated as lectures given either at Xavier University’s Paris Seminar on Political Theory or at the Cincinnati campus to American (and, in Paris, French) university students. While most chapters are short introductions, essentially invitations to students to engage in more detailed study, each section of book is anchored by several longer essays from distinguished scholars, and in fact readers will find contributions from several prominent French intellectuals.

Inspired by Machiavelli, modern philosophers held that the tension between the goals of biblical piety and the goals of political life needed to be resolved in favor of the political, and so they attempted to recast and delimit traditional Christian teaching to serve and stabilize political life accordingly.  This volume examines the thought and arguments of those thinkers who worked to remake Christianity into a civil religion from the early modern through modern periods.
Beginning with Machiavelli and continuing through to Alexis de Tocqueville, the essays in this collection explain in detail the ways in which these philosophers used religious and secular writing to build a civil religion in the West. Early chapters examine topics such as Machiavelli’s comparisons of Christianity with Roman religion, Francis Bacon’s cherry-picking of Christian doctrines in service of scientific innovation, and Spinoza’s attempt to replace long-held superstitions with newer, “progressive” ones. Subsequent essays probe the scripture-based, anti-Christian argument that religion must be subordinate to politics espoused by Rene Descartes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and David Hume, each of whom championed reason over divine authority. The book culminates in the study of civil religion in America, with chapters on John Locke, Montesquieu, and the American Founders probing the relation between religious and civil history, acts, and authority. The last chapter is an examination of Tocqueville’s account of civil religion and the American regime.
Detailed, thought-provoking, and based on the careful study of original texts, this survey of religion and politics in the West will appeal to scholars in the history of political philosophy, political theory, and American political thought.