An essential volume of essays commissioned by The American Spectator and edited by the philosopher Roger Scruton, Liberty and Civilization examines the intellectual and spiritual traditions of our belief in individual liberty, from the Judeo Christian origins through Enlightenment philosophy.

Religious faith is under assault. In books, movies and on television, secular critics are attacking religion and the religious with a renewed vigor. These “new atheists” typically repeat a two-part mantra. First they claim that religious faith is irrational. Then they assert that irrational people possessed of such faith are responsible [...]

In what we tell ourselves is an age of reason, we are behaving increasingly irrationally. More and more people are signing up to weird and wacky cults, parapsychology, séances, paganism and witchcraft. There is widespread belief in ludicrous conspiracy theories, such as the 9/11 terrorist attack being an American plot.