January, 2011

Tradition and Foundations: Problems in Nature, Authority, and Equality

by James Poulos
The Conversation
January 31st, 2011

In his round of responses, Russell gives us much to think and talk about. Here I can only pluck out a few threads. First, I applaud his care in noting that “modernity’s loss of an aristocratic, inegalitarian ethos” has not been “a total loss.” And I am intrigued that he follows this up by suggesting [...]

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Concluding Response to Fea and Others: “Tradition” vs. “Traditionalism”

by Russell Arben Fox
The Conversation
January 31st, 2011

John Fea suggests that the turn that Tushnet and I have made in our final exchange—in which I basically agreed with her in that the argument over same-sex marriage is the only major public policy dispute in America today where “tradition” is regularly invoked, though dissented in a few particulars—is missing the larger picture. Fea [...]

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Tradition and American Political Life

by John Fea
The Conversation
January 27th, 2011

First, let me thank my fellow contributors for this rich conversation. I am afraid that I am coming to this discussion a bit late and as a result I am not sure where to jump in. Part of the problem, I think, is that I am a historian and don’t spend a lot of time [...]

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Further Response to Tushnet: Who Talks About Tradition?

by Russell Arben Fox
The Conversation
January 27th, 2011

Eve Tushnet asks a truly fascinating question in one of her latest responses: “Why is marriage the only area of contemporary politics in which tradition is used explicitly as a justification?” The question is fascinating even though the assumption that lies behind it—namely, that outside the current argument over same-sex and traditional marriage, no one [...]

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Tradition’s Comedies of Error

by Eve Tushnet
The Conversation
January 25th, 2011

Both Russell Arben Fox and James Poulos have mentioned my belief that traditions can accrue around institutions or vocations and thereby, in a sense, create those vocations and give them an authority they previously lacked. Meanwhile John Fea notes that communal, love-enhancing, and joyful traditions can be based in historical inaccuracy. So here’s why I [...]

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Who Put the Tradition in “Traditional Marriage”?

by Eve Tushnet
The Conversation
January 25th, 2011

Why is marriage the only area of contemporary politics in which tradition is used explicitly as a justification? Both Russell Arben Fox and James Poulos used marriage to exemplify their views of tradition, and it’s the only public-policy question I can think of in which one side has actually accepted the label “traditional.” Considering why [...]

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Response to Poulos: On the Authority of Tradition

by Russell Arben Fox
The Conversation
January 24th, 2011

James Poulos’s wonderfully rich response (and his second one too!) in some ways seem to anticipate and take issue with my reply to John Fea, what with my talk about the “democratic input of the people” and the “civic order.” Poulos’s thoughtful argument is that what truly threatens traditions is not the tendency of moderns [...]

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Response to Fea: Preserving Communities and Traditions

by Russell Arben Fox
The Conversation
January 24th, 2011

I appreciate very much the thoughtful response presented by John Fea to my essay. As a historian, Fea is rightly concerned primarily with the civic traditions “that help to define our lives together.” Given this focus, I fully agree with his distinction between “tradition”—the conscious, adaptive work of preserving and shaping the particular knowledge and [...]

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