In the spring/summer issue of Cato Journal, Juliana Pilon, Senior Fellow at The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI), reviews Reason, Faith, and the Struggle for Western Civilization by Samuel Gregg.  Dr. Pilon praises Gregg for taking on a daunting task, nothing less than attempting “to define the very essence of Western civilization” itself.  Toward that end, Gregg centers on the interaction between faith and reason, the importance of their complementarity, and the dangers of one becoming untethered from the other.

Gregg emphasizes the importance of personal freedom in allowing the search for truth that is necessary for human flourishing. Pilon praises Gregg for understanding, however, that reliance on pure reason can also endanger freedom, fostering an arrogant and dangerous utopianism by elites who regard themselves as “an allegedly omniscient technocratic vanguard that presumes to replace individual choice.  These elite deciders are indeed the self-appointed idols of modernity.”

Dr. Pilon is the author of The Utopian Conceit and the War on Freedom (Academic Press, 2019). The James Wilson Institute (JWI) will host an interactive Zoom webinar discussion with Juliana Pilon about her book today, Monday, June 8, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.