Washington Examiner senior editor Peter Laffin recently interviewed First Things editor Rusty Reno and Mark Tooley, the president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, on Christian nationalism. At one point, he said that although he agrees with Reno’s diagnoses of what has gone wrong in America and the West, he found himself asking, “What exactly are you proposing?”
In other words, he is asking Reno, “How do we get from the diagnosis to recovery?” This brought to mind something Catholic author Mary Eberstadt said in a recent talk: “Diagnosis has become a substitute for treatment.”
I’ve been in America for 48 years this December. And as a reader and writer, it seems to me the life of the mind has always revolved around diagnosis because for most of us, we are always asking the what, why, and how questions about ourselves and the world. These, and similar questions, seek understanding. Human life in this world needs that understanding to thrive and advance. Yet it is not enough.
Read the full essay at the Washington Examiner.