Testing the National Covenant ─ Fears and Appetites in American Politics

May (Institute of Practical Ethics and Public Life, U. of Virginia) argues that much of American politics can be understood as consequences of (but not reducible to) the religious patterns and energies of a Manichean dualism in the approach of the "radical Right" to foreign and domestic policy, which can be characterized as imperial overreach in both spheres and which is based on an understanding of the origins of the United States in the purely contractual agreement between self-interested individuals and thus understands government as only properly in the business of defending against foreign threats of invasion and internal threats of violence, thus ignoring the Constitution's understanding of government's purpose "to promote the general Welfare." He counters this contractual reasoning with a covenantal interpretation of American origins, which presupposes a history of reciprocity amongst "We the People" and seeks to build upon it. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

William F. May is a senior fellow at the Institute of Practical Ethics and Public Life at the University of Virginia. He received his PhD from Yale and taught for many years at Southern Methodist University, where he was the founding director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. A former president of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics, he has written several books on medical and political ethics.