Fallen city (apologian) -- The revenge of conscience The illusion of moral neutrality Politics of virtues, government of knaves The problem with communitarianism The problem with liberalism The problem with conservatism Why we kill the weak The fallen city (reprise and charge).

A depraved conscience--not merely ignorant but willfully corrupt--is the most destructive force in political live. In an incisive reflection on politics and the Original Sin, a relentlessly perceptive political philosopher demonstrates that modern ideologies all deny the fallen nature that is the source of the three great problems of public life: we do wrong, our thinking about the wrong we do is clouded, and our efforts to rectify the wrong are themselves deformed by sin. Blinded in the truth about ourselves, we habitually suppress our conscience until it is corrupted and, taking its revenge, leads us to cultural calamity. The revenge of conscience is horrifically manifest today in abortion, euthanasia, and suicide, evils brought about by the pollution of good impulses such as pity, prudence, honor, and love. The way out of this confusion, he concludes, is Christianity, a once-prevalent faith whose troubling memory men now suppress along with their knowledge of the natural law. The political responsibility of Christians is somehow to stir up that memory and that knowledge, a daunting task in a world of sound bites and shouting matches. -- Front flap.

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