The Civil Theology of Robert Bellah By Matthew Rose July 24, 2023   Interested in discussing this article in your classroom, parish, reading group, or Commonweal Local Community? Click here for a free issue discussion guide. Robert Bellah was the last major thinker on the American Left to argue that shared religious beliefs are essential for democratic politics. In an era that saw liberalism grow progressively more secular, he defended views that dissented from elite opinion and the models of reality on which it rested.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/civil-theology-robert-bellah

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Ukrainian soldiers walk in Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, October 1, 202. (CNS photo/Zohra Bensemra, Reuters). Ukraine is confronted with a stark choice: fight on through a bitter winter with death raining from above, or initiate negotiations with Russia under unfavorable terms. Two-and-a-half millennia ago, the leaders of the Greek island of Melos confronted a similar choice. The leaders of Melos were faced with the prospect of either submitting to Athenian rule or risking annihilation. This was the proposition conveyed by the Athenian envoys, as recounted by Thucydides in his classic study of the Peloponnesian War.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ukraine-russia-Thucydides-melian-athens-war

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Is Ethics Like Math? By Frank B. Farrell August 16, 2023 Philosophers today are typically unknown outside their discipline, but within it, Derek Parfit, who died in 2017, was considered one of the most important figures of the past fifty years. He had an extraordinary knack for revealing the hidden weaknesses of common moral theories. We may believe, for example, that an action is wrong only if it causes harm to particular individuals. But consider our relation to future generations.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ethics-math

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Fox News' Manhattan headquarters in 2019 (Ajay Suresh/Flickr) The $787.5 million that Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems is the largest publicly known defamation settlement by an American media company. Many who'd hoped that Fox would receive a more severe punishment for knowingly spreading lies about the 2020 election, including the alleged role of Dominion's voting machines in 'stealing' it from Donald Trump, were disappointed by the unexpectedly sudden resolution. Fox did not have to offer an apology or admit to any specific wrongdoing; instead, it issued a short statement acknowledging 'the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false' and cynically insisted on its 'commitment to the highest journalistic standards.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/fox-dominion-news-carlson-tucker-editorial

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