Democratic Authority at Century’s End
Jean Bethke Elshtain summarizes mid-twentieth-century concerns of Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) about the growing suspicion about the very idea of authority. (41 minutes)
The tasks, conditions, and limits of democratic politics
Excerpts from three interviews with Jean Bethke Elshtain about her concern that democracy might not be able to survive widespread distrust or the dynamics of identity politics. (37 minutes)
The life of the wise man should be social
Jean Bethke Elshtain on St. Augustine’s understanding of the shape of human relationality
The rise of God as capricious and willful
Jean Bethke Elshtain on the effects of nominalism on the Western understanding of divine (and human) sovereignty
Questioning the “sacred-secular” division
With the stage set by Michael Sandel, Jean Bethke Elshtain, David L. Schindler, and John Milbank, Andrew Willard Jones examines a medieval alternative to the modern liberal paradigm. (61 minutes)