ON “IS CHARACTER DEAD?”
James Davison Hunter said: “We say we want a renewal of character in our day but don’t really know what we ask for. To have a renewal of character is to have a renewal of a creedal order that constrains, limits, binds, obligates, and compels. This price is too high for us to pay. We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the authority to insist upon it; we want more commonnity without any limitations to personal freedom. In short we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms that we want it.”