The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man

A depraved conscience -- not merely ignorant but willfully corrupt -- is the most destructive force in political life. In an incisive reflection on politics and original sin, a relentlessly perceptive political philosopher demonstrates that modern ideologies all deny the fallen nature that is 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 that wrong are themselves deformed by sin. Blinded to this truth about ourselves, we habitually suppress our conscience until it is corrupted, and, taking its revenge, leads us to cultural calamity.

J. BUDZISZEWSKI was born in Wisconsin but has long lived in Texas. Since 1981, when he completed his doctoral work at Yale, he has taught at the University of Texas in Austin, where he holds joint appointments in Government and Philosophy. Convinced that the responsibilities of a political thinker toward his fellow citizens are just as great as those toward his fellow scholars, he is widely published not only in purely scholarly venues but also in books and articles for a broader audience. Among religious thinkers, he is probably best known for his articles in First Things, a monthly journal of religion and public life. College students know him through his monthly column "Office Hours" in the internet magazine Boundless. A former nihilist, Professor Budziszewski became a Christian in the early 'eighties. If the "established religion" of American political theory is that "Whatever might be true of God, it couldn't make any difference to our thinking about how we should live," then he is a Dissenter.