Christian democracy in America

Writing in the new issue of Boston Review, Lew Daly describes the roots of President Bush's faith-based initiative in the European christian democratic experience: "Compassion Capital." Remarkably, Daly pays close attention to the influence of Reformed and Catholic social teachings, as manifested in the principles of sphere sovereignty and subsidiarity respectively. Mention is made in this context of some familiar names: James Skillen, Stanley Carlson-Thies, Bernard Zylstra, Abraham Kuyper and many others. I will undoubtedly come back to this article once paper-marking and final exams are out of the way. At this point I will simply ask whether its publication might indicate that neocalvinism and neothomism are finally coming into the mainstream of North American cultural consciousness.