Planting Law and Democracy in Sustainable Soil

Constitutional democracy is threatened today in America. Both sides of the angry political aisles claim that they are defending democracy. But they are not. Constitutional democracy can only be protected by planting it in the sustainable soil of forbearance.

At one time, that soil was a common religiously grounded ontological realism that did not consider opponents to be enemies. With the “Death of God,” that soil became unavailable. Only when we recover from the cultural nihilism engendered by the “Death of God,” which has undermined the rule of law, can we find new sustainable soil in which constitutional democracy can grow. There are three steps to begin this search.

First, Americans must admit that the crisis of public life is spiritual and affects us all. Second, law schools need to become places where students are encouraged to investigate what kind of beings we are and what kind of universe we live in, and in which faculty commitments on these issues are acknowledged and defended. There must be no more reflexive nihilism. Finally, out of this process, we will rediscover the truth about law—it must comport with cosmology and phenomenology, and that public life must be grounded in soil that is real.