Yes, it's time for the October issue of Comment. What's on line this month? Put this in your pipe and smoke it: "Blessed Be the Ties That Bind", by Jonathan Chaplin ; A Call for the Thought Police, by Vincent Bacote; Citizen Union: Labour Organizations in Civil Society, by Ed Bosveld; Dialoguing with Terrorists and Liberals, a review of Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism, by Barbara Hampton; Life's Big Questions: Why Am I Here, by Shiao Chong; Neocalvinism and Social Justice, by your devoted servant; and, last but not least, Reinventing the Well: Considering Design for Healthy Neighbourhoods, by Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma.
I've heard an encouraging rumour that in the new year Comment will return to a printed journal format and will no longer be web-only. If it proves to be true, there will be a lot of happy people out there who find it difficult to curl up in front of the fireplace after dinner with a virtual periodical in their laps.
As for my own article on neo-Calvinism and social justice, I will be interested to see how this is received. I just read a review of my book in the Acton Institute's Journal of Markets & Morality (the new issue of which is not yet on line) in which the reviewer appeared reluctant to accept my conviction that the state has a responsibility to address poverty because Scripture does not explicitly assign it this task. At some point I should probably write something about the proper uses of Scripture in such matters. But for now I will simply affirm my belief that, as part of their divine mandate to do justice, the political authorities do have a limited responsibility to alleviate poverty, in co-operation with other institutions.
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