originally published 5/31/2022

Philosopher D. C. Schindler argues that — because of the nature of the Incarnation — when one rejects reality, one is rejecting God. Rejecting the real — failing to recognizing and honor what is really the case — also means the loss of any true “public” gathered around a common good. In the pre-modern world, “the public” was understood as the life of the community, but with modernity, the individual shifts from being a member of a community to being the center of gravity in and of himself. This means that the public sphere became merely the place for the gathering of individuals. Liberalism sought to make way for these individuals to function together without any orientation to an explicit common good. But, as Schindler argues, without a common good, public life collapses in upon itself. D. C. Schindler is the author of The Politics of the Real: The Church Between Liberalism and Integralism (New Polity Press, 2021).

37 minutes

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