In The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis , Robert George tackles the issues at the heart of the contemporary conflict of worldviews. Secular liberals typically suppose that their positions on morally charged issues of public policy are the fruit of pure reason, while those of their morally conservative opponents reflect an irrational religious faith. George shows that this supposition is wrong on both counts. Challenging liberalism's claim to represent the triumph of reason, George argues that on controversial issues like abortion, euthanasia, same-sex unions, civil rights and liberties, and the place of religion in public life, traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs are rationally superior to secular liberal alternatives. The Clash of Orthodoxies is a profoundly important contribution to our contemporary national conversation about the proper role of religion in politics. The lucid and persuasive prose of Robert George, one of America's most prominent public intellectuals, will shock liberals out of an unwarranted complacency and provide powerful ammunition for embattled defenders of traditional morality. "...George has done a great service in demonstrating that traditional morality still has an authoritative role to play...." -- The Weekly Standard, February 11, 2002 "Clash of Orthodoxies...is an excellent, scholarly presentation of the natural-law way of getting at hot issues such as abortion." -- World, March 23, 2002 "Robert P. George is one of the most incisive legal and moral thinkers working today..." -- First Things "The Clash of Orthodoxies is...dedicated to exploring the intricacies of the issues...and dealing fully with the opposing views." -- National Review, February 25, 2002 It is a common supposition among many of our cultural elites that a constitutional "wall of separation" between church and state precludes religious believers from bringing their beliefs to bear on public matters. This is because secular liberals typically assume that their own positions on morally charged issues of public policy are the fruit of pure reason, while those of their morally conservative opponents reflect an irrational religious faith. In The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion, and Morality in Crisis, Princeton political theorist Robert P. George shows that this supposition is wrong on both counts. Challenging liberalism's claim to represent the triumph of reason, George argues that on controversial issues like embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and same-sex marriage, traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs are actually rationally superior to secular liberal alternatives. Drawing on the natural law philosophical tradition, George demolishes various secularist pretenses, such as the notion that the very young and very old among us are somehow subpersonal and not worthy of full legal protection. He reveals the dubious person-body dualism implicit in secularist arguments, and he demonstrates the flawed reasoning behind the idea that the state ought to be neutral regarding competing understandings of the nature and value of marriage. George also revisits the controversy surrounding his participation in the First Things "End of Democracy?" symposium, in which he considered the relevance of Catholic teachings regarding the legitimacy of political regimes to the contemporary American situation. George argues that because natural law and natural rights doctrine lie at the foundation of the American republic, the judicial reading of the Constitution that has undermined democracy in order to enshrine the secularist agenda is deeply flawed. In advancing his thesis, George argues for a return to old-fashioned liberalism, a worldview that he claims is best exemplified by Pope John Paul II, whose teachings laud democracy, religious liberty, and economic freedom while also recognizing the demands of civil rights, social and economic justice, and the principle of subsidiarity. These demands restrain Catholics--and indeed all people of faith--from making personal freedom an absolute, and George takes to task those political leaders who, though believers, have denied or ignored the political responsibility this entails. The Clash of Orthodoxies is a profoundly important contribution to our contemporary national conversation about the proper role of religion in politics. The lucid and persuasive prose of Robert George, one of America's most prominent public intellectuals, will shock secular liberals out of an unwarranted complacency and provide powerful ammunition for embattled defenders of traditional morality. Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. He has received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civil Achievement, and trhe Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He chairs the U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom and has served on the President'