Jardine Festschrift

Preface

In this issue of TAD, we look now to the work of Professor Murray Jardine. Jardine has spent much of his intellectual career in political theory meditating upon the works of Michael Polanyi, William Poteat, and Eric Voegelin, as well as a host of luminaries in the fields of theology and political philosophy. A good part of his work can be seen as working-out the tacit, theological underpinnings of the projects of both Polanyi and Poteat. Jardine’s work has aimed to not only to bring them to consciousness, but also to work out their positive implications for rectifying Western theology and thereby Western political theory.

In this issue, Jardine’s work in the domains of political theory and Christian theology are examined and critiqued by J. Dalton Ansley, Dylan Boyd, Victor Sutton, and Elizabeth Sutton. Jardine himself then responds to his interlocutors.

Murray Jardine’s CV

C.V.

Articles

  • J. Dalton Ansley – A Place for Knowledge: The Influence of Michael Polanyi in the Works of Murray Jardine (HTML PDF)

    Abstract: The relationship between politics and science has been a topic of philosophical and scientific inquiry throughout recorded history; in the last century research on this topic has continued to provide mixed results for both the fields of the philosophy of science and political science. Perhaps never before have the foundations of all human knowledge been threatened so gravely as they have in the modern age, and never has the need for a proper understanding of knowledge been greater. Perhaps none have provided more valuable insight into the nature of the relationship between politics and science than Michael Polanyi and the line of research developed around his work and continued by Murray Jardine.

  • Dylan Boyd and Victor Sutton – The Crisis of Modern Rationalism and How to Fix It: A Reflection on and Critique of Murray Jardine’s Writings (HTML PDF)

    Abstract: The work of professor and theorist Murray Jardine has brought an undeniable impact to the discipline of political science. His work touches on multiple subjects but primarily deals with what he calls the “crisis of modern rationalism.” He focuses on the detrimental effects of liberal capitalist democracy and its individualist nature and, more broadly, on what he sees as the incoherence of the Enlightenment understanding of nature and humanity. To resolve this crisis, he proposes the transformation of society into a communitarian system rooted in Catholic social teaching and a decentralized market structure. This essay will explore Jardine’s ideas as they have developed in his body of work.

  • Elizabeth Newman – Start Making Sense: Murray Jardine’s Turn to Theology (HTML PDF)

    Abstract: Murray Jardine notes that since World War II a growing consensus has seen the modern worldview as at least partially incoherent. What, however, is the alternative? Throughout his insightful and provocative work, Jardine argues that any genuine alternative (prognosis) must first come to terms with what modernity actually is (diagnosis). While Jardine engages political theory, history, and philosophy in illuminative and compelling ways, he ultimately argues that modernity is the result of skewed theological convictions that can be traced to Augustine. I shall examine three of the theological threads that Jardine identifies: gnosticism, nominalism, and an Augustinian unitarianism. While the first two have indeed distorted our understanding of nature, human agency, and God, I argue that Augustine’s theology—far from being a source of modernity’s disease—instead offers a needed corrective.

  • Murray Jardine – Response to Sutton, Boyd, Ansley, and Newman (HTML PDF)

    Abstract: Murray Jardine responds to Sutton, Boyd, Ansley, and Newman’s commentaries on his work. He comments upon his relationship to Michael Polanyi, William Poteat, Colin Gunton, and Eric Voegelin, and reflects upon the unexpected side effects which an underdeveloped conceptualization of the Spirit within Latin or Western Christian theology have had on the unfolding of Western thought and politics. Jardine furthermore suggests directions in which Western theology should progress in order to rectify the theoretical and existential difficulties which have ensued.

Notes on Contributors

  • Murray Jardine (jardimu@auburn.edu)

    Murray Jardine was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He became Catholic in 1985. He has Bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Economics/Political Science. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at Duke University in 1992 and teaches at Auburn. His field is political philosophy. His work applies recent developments in philosophy of science and philosophy of language to political theology. It draws upon philosophers such as Michael Polanyi, Ian Barbour, Hans Jonas, and Alasdair MacIntyre and theologians such as Henri de Lubac, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI.

  • J. Dalton Ansley (jansle2@lsu.edu)

    Dalton Ansley received his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy at Auburn University where he focused his study on the history of Philosophy, the philosophy of religion, epistemology, and the Enlightenment era. Dalton is currently a Political Theory PH.D. candidate writing a dissertation titled, Johann Georg Hamann and the Liberal Project. He has taught classes on introductory political theory, and lectures on American and German political thought.

  • Dylan Boyd (Michael.boyd2@faulkner.edu)

    Dylan Boyd is currently a law student at Thomas Goode Jones School of Law and a former student of Murray Jardine at Auburn University. During his undergraduate studies, his research areas included political theory, specifically justice as fairness and its alternatives. He has continued his research in law school, focusing on modern constitutional issues.

  • Elizabeth Newman (bnewman.theology@gmail.com)

    Dr. Elizabeth Newman currently serves as adjunct professor of theology at Duke Divinity School. She is the author of Untamed Hospitality, Welcoming God and Other Strangers (2007), Attending the Wounds on Christ’s Body: Teresa’s Scriptural Vision (2012), Divine Abundance: Leisure, the Basis of Academic Culture (2018) and Living the Liturgy, Enlarging the Baptist Vision (2024).

  • Victor Sutton (vms0020@auburn.edu)

    Victor Sutton is a graduate of Auburn University, obtaining his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a concentration in international relations. He graduated magna cum laude and with a University Honors Scholar distinction, also receiving a Certificate in National Security and Intelligence. His interest in Polanyi centers on the continuing impact of his work on modern theorists.