Sightings Articles

Black and white lithograph of Thomas Jefferson sitting at desk with books

Enlightenment | Thomas Jefferson | Christianity

Enlightenment Religion in the Private and Public Bibles of Thomas Jefferson

For Thomas Jefferson, the human being's responsibility was to extricate and celebrate good religion....

February 29, 2024

faith | Enlightenment

Faith and Enlightenment in Dark Times

Tomorrow, Viking will publish Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, from which The Wall Street Journal ran an adapted excerpt on Saturday. To counter the profound gloom which is both fashionable and ...

February 12, 2018

conservatism | criticism | Enlightenment | Evangelicalism | liberalism | methodology | study of religion

In Defense of the Liberal in the Study of Religion

Editor's note: In observance of the holidays, Sightings will be off next week. We wish to thank all those who have contributed, read, shared, and responded to our columns this past year. See you in 2017!   In the aftermath of the U.S. president...

December 22, 2016

freedom of expression | Oliver Wendell Holmes | censorship | Voltaire | Louis Brandeis | blasphemy | Prophet Mohammad | Charlie Hebdo | Thomas Aquinas | Puritans | American Revolution | Enlightenment | Second Great Awakening | John Adams | Thomas Jefferson | US Supreme Court | Zineb El Rhazoui

"Charlie Hebdo's" Haunting Question: Should We Have the Right To Blaspheme?

Geoffrey Stone's comments were first delivered in early March when he introduced a University of Chicago event featuring Charlie Hebdo journalist, Zineb El Rhazoui....

April 23, 2015