Reflections, Explorations, Reviews, and Notices

Here are links to essays and reviews, intended to foster dialogue among believers seeking the will of God for civility in our politics.

Reflections: short, personal, and/or immediate.

Explorations: scholarly, theoretical or empirical

Reviews: books, articles, videos, etc., with our ratings.

Notices: alert you to the existence of a resource.

Reflections:

(Click on the title to see more.)

(Robin Baker)

(John Wood, Jr. April 11, 2021)

(Ron Mock, April 6, 2021)

(Leslie Murray, Feb. 14, 2021)

(Ron Mock)




Explorations:

  • The Roots of Civility I: Faith, Hope and Providence (Ron Mock) (Posted 12/31/20)

  • The Roots of Civility II: Love and the gift of disagreement (Ron Mock) (Posted 1/4/21)

  • The Roots of Civility III: Political stewardship and duty (Ron Mock) (Not posted yet)


Reviews:

  • David French, Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2020). Must Read / Should Read.

Click here to read this review

At least 2020 produced two good books on polarization in America

  • Tania Israel, Beyond Your Bubble (American Psychological Association, 2020): Must Read

  • Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized (Avid Reader Press, 2020). Should/Could Read

Click here to read this review

Is Disagreement on Your Christmas List?

Daniel Cox, "Democrats and Republicans Should Argue More -- Not Less", FiveThirtyEight, Dec. 20, 2020: Should Read

Notices:

  • Lilliana Mason, Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity (University of Chicago Press, 2018), reviewed here by Daniel Bennett, a GF alum and assistant professor of political science at John Brown University.

  • David French, Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2020). An alarmed observer currently affiliated with no political party warns about the dangerous dynamics of polarization, envisions how secession might dismember America, and proposes a path toward saving the nation.

  • Jonathan Kuttab, Beyond the Two-State Solution (Nonviolence International, 2020). Long time Christian nonviolence advocate -- and lawyer! -- Kuttab explains why a two-state solution is no longer viable, and describes a vision of a single democratic state with a constitution guaranteeing the rights and security of both Jews and Palestinians. Kuttab is frank about the challenges of creating a civil democratic political culture involving two polarized, alienated, mutually-wounded groups.


Do you have a reflection, exploration, or review to share?

You can contribute pieces you'd like us to publish. Just send them to us at civility@georgefox.edu. We cannot guarantee we will publish everything we receive, nor can we compensate authors of unsolicited works.