Steve Smith, "The Church in the Twilight"

While I'm at it, here's a little notice for a new paper by Professor Steven Smith that may be of interest to MOJ readers, from the same conference organized by Professor Helen Alvaré as the one for which I wrote the paper below. Steve's paper is The Church in the Twilight and the abstract is below. It's well worth your time.

Writing in the 1970s, Robert Nisbet observed that we can observe in history “twilight periods”– the late Roman Republic, the late Roman Empire, the late Middle Ages– in which one form of civilization was collapsing and another form was emerging; and Nisbet believed that the West is currently in such a period. In recent years similar assessments have proliferated, coming from various points on the political spectrum. Such assessments are inherently speculative; nonetheless, they might naturally influence our political and cultural decisions: choices that might make sense when a society is growing and vibrant might make less sense in a period of decadence or collapse. In the area of religious freedom, more specifically, institutional religious freedom has in American history been secondary to or derivative of a dominant emphasis on individual religious freedom; and these priorities have been consistent with the individualism that has been a central and celebrated feature of Western civilization. But there is reason to think that this individualism now underlies some of society’s serious ailments. In this situation, it may be that institutional religious freedom– freedom of the church– should be the priority.