A Return to Reason
A conversation with Robert Royal. Interviewed by Gerald J. Russello The University Bookman is delighted to post this interview with Robert Royal, president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington D.C. and Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic Thing. He has written, edited, and translated sixteen books, and his books, articles, and comments have appeared in a dozen languages. He lectures frequently on matters of religion, culture, and public affairs here and abroad. His most recent book is The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Created and Shaped the West (Encounter). He is currently working on a comprehensive history of the Catholic intellectual tradition in the twentieth century. Thanks for joining us. Is there a uniquely Catholic perspective into American politics and culture? If you look at Catholic voting patterns, not much; unfortunately, that seems to me to be a constantly changing reality. If you look at the usual public policy debates, there’s a little more: Catholics primarily, along with a few members of a few other faith groups, still know how to argue about the importance of defending life, marriage, family, and civil society from the Leviathan of the modern state. But if you look at the whole two-thousand-year history of the Church, which its roots in Judaism and the Middle East, Greco-Roman culture, and many other elements, there not only is a distinctive Catholic perspective, but it’s difficult to think what else might save American culture from itself at the present moment. And the prospects are not so great even for that.
