This rich and varied collection of essays addresses some of the most fundamental human questions through the lenses of philosophy, literature, religion, politics, and theology. Peter Augustine Lawler and Dale McConkey have fashioned an interdisciplinary consideration of such perennial and enduring issues as the relationship between nature and history, nature and grace, reason and revelation, classical philosophy and Christianity, modernity and postmodernity, repentance and self-limitation, and philosophy and politics. These tensions are explored through the works of such eminent thinkers as Aristotle, Augustine, and Tocqueville, but the contributors engage a wide variety of texts from popular culture, American literature—Flannery O'Connor receives notable attention—and social theory to create a remarkably comprehensive, if far from harmonious, introduction to political philosphy today.

Contributions by: Michelle E. Brady, Paul A. Cantor, Thomas Darby, Henry T. Edmondson III, Stephen L. Gardner, Marc D. Guerra, Gregory R. Johnson, Joseph M. Knippenberg, Peter Augustine Lawler, Daniel J. Mahoney, James F. Pontuso, Paul Seaton, Ashley Woodiwiss