Faith of Our Fathersnby Marion Montgomeryn”What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thounvisitest him? For thou hast made him a httle lower than the angels, and hastncrowned him with glory and honor.”n— Psalm 8:4-5nA Government of Laws: PoliticalnTheory, Religion, and thenAmerican Foundingnby Ellis SandoznBaton Rouge: Louisiana StatenUniversity Press; 259 pp., $37.50nPolitical Sermons of the AmericannFounding Era: 1730-1805nEdited by Ellis SandoznIndianapolis: Liberty Press;n1,596 pp., $38.00nEllis Sandoz’s new book is of suchnimportance to us in our intellectuallyndisoriented day as to require, not an”review,” but an essay commendatory.nAs valuable as descriptive summary reviews,nwith requisite caveats, may be,nthey have the disadvantage of giving.anreader the illusion of having read thenbook itself, wherefrom he moves on tonthe next review, feeling knowledgeablenbut lacking that advance of intellectncalled understanding. What is importantnin this instance is the author’snmanner of address, out of a long apprenticeshipnin service to the word. Thenmatter addressed is important, but insofarnas it appears summarized in the title,nthat matter may appear merely topical,nsuited to a review in the ordinary sensenof that vocational undertaking. Put anothernway. Professor Sandoz’s A Governmentnof Laws deepens and puts in anlarger perspective the intellectual originsnof the Constitution as presentednby Forrest McDonald in Novus OrdonSeclorum, anchoring the intellectualnorigins of the Constitution more firmlynin Western tradition.nAs for his devoted service to thenMarion Montgomery is the author ofnmany books, including most recentlynLiberal Arts and Community andnThe Men I Have Chosen fornFathers.n32/CHRONICLESnword as scholar, there is the presentninstance of his Political Sermons of thenAmerican Founding Era, a collectionnof published sermons “from the onsetnof the Creat Awakening to the beginningnof the Second Awakening andnThomas Jefferson’s second administration.”nEach sermon is complete andnprefaced by a succinct biography of thenpreacher. The principal of selection isnthe political concern of the author asnviewed from his religious perspective.nThe volume represents religious patriots,nlargely from New England, fornwhom the religious ground to politicalnorder is paramount. Professor Sandoz’snforeword sets that perspective, and thencollection provides evidence of a generalnconcern in the colonial populacenthat the new nation be founded “undernGod.”nMore to our concern for the largernvision upon the founding supplied bynA Government of Laws, we remembernProfessor Sandoz’s Political Apocalypse:nA Study of Dostoevsky’s GrandnInquisitor (1971), which evidences thenrare facility of seeing a literary text in itsnphilosophical and historical and reli­nnngious context. There are also hisnVoegelinian Revolution: A BiographicalnIntroduction (1981) and morenrecently, through his mediation,nVoegelin’s own Autobiographical Reflectionsn(1989). Sandoz continues asnprofessor of political science at LSU,nwhere he is also director of the EricnVoegelin Institute for American RenaissancenStudies, which is engaged innthe publication of Voegelin’s CollectednWorks in 34 volumes. Such is thenintellectual milieu within which ProfessornSandoz lives and breathes andnhas his being, and out of which henmoves, through knowledge acquired,nto an understanding of the known, andnin pursuit of wisdom. It is the concernnfor wisdom beyond knowledge andnunderstanding that the present worknrecalls to us.nIt does so by exhaustive documentationnand explication of the intellectualnroots that the principal Founders of ournrepublic not only shared, but knewnthey shared. Out of that inheritance,nthey labored to reconcile differencesnamong themselves, but always with anpiety toward that inherited intellectualntradition, a piety that our present politicalnintellectuals find it popular to reject.nProfessor Sandoz demonstrates,nfor instance, a fundamental influencenupon the Founders’ thinking of classicalnphilosophy and Christian theology.nThe importance of these influences onnthe emerging consensus of the FoundingnFathers underlies those monumentsnto political thought: the Declarationnof Independence, the Constitution,nthe Bill of Rights. AnGovernment of Laws shows this withnsuch authority that it may no longer benneglected or irresponsibly denied, asnhas become the habit of our intellectualnconduct toward the founding innscholarly and popular thought by thenend of this, our second century as anrepublic.n