America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding

Robert R. Reilly
Ignatius Press, 366 pages

It is claimed that Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, and Jean Jacques Rousseau and the theories of government “by the people” that they developed profoundly influenced the framers of the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Robert R. Reilly not only denies this assertion, but turns it on its head. In fact, he traces the American concept of ordered liberty to the Judeo-Christian ideal of one God who creates man in His own image, to the ancient philosophers and their use of reason, and to the Person of Christ Himself. From this they drew the principles of natural law that were the real foundation of our nation, where freedom and reason must together prevail.

Order: Amazon