A Realistic Alliance

A Response to Richard John Neuhaus

by S. M. Hutchens

I will not respond to Fr. Richard John Neuhaus’s presentation point by point, but rather to his larger topic in the context of my own, since my outline was written before I received his. (That is often how conference papers work, I fear.) We will, however, cross paths, and swords, more than once in this one, since our topic and concern are the same. I have been a grateful and reasonably attentive reader of Neuhaus for many years, regarding him as one of my principal teachers on religion and public affairs. While I can’t read his mind, I can to some degree anticipate his trajectories, or, as he might say, “the gravamen of the matter,” when I have his subject in hand.

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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.

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