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“Brilliant . . . Should be required reading.” —Commentary

“As a critic of liberalism, George is devastating.” —National Review

“Puts George’s highly burnished philosophical and constitutional learning on full display . . . George speaks for a sizable number of conscientious objectors to America’s ruling liberal secularism.” —New York Times Book Review

“Could not be more timely. A treasure trove of thought-provoking reflections by one of the best minds of our time.” —Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law, from the foreword to the updated and expanded paperback edition of Conscience and Its Enemies

Assaults on religious liberty and traditional morality are growing fiercer. Here, at last, is the counterattack.

This revised and updated paperback edition of the acclaimed Conscience and Its Enemies showcases the talents that have made Robert P. George one of America’s most influential thinkers. Here George explodes the myth that the secular elite represents the voice of reason. In fact, it is on the elite side of the cultural divide where the prevailing views are little more than articles of faith. Conscience and Its Enemies reveals the bankruptcy of these too often smugly held orthodoxies while presenting powerfully reasoned arguments for classical virtues.

In defending what James Madison called the “sacred rights of conscience”—rights for which government shows frightening contempt—George grapples with today’s most controversial issues: same-sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism, genetic manipulation, euthanasia and assisted suicide, religion in politics, judicial activism, and more. His brilliantly argued essays rely not on theological claims or religious authority but on established scientific facts and a philosophical tradition that extends back to Plato and Aristotle.

Conscience and Its Enemies sets forth powerful arguments that secular liberals are unaccustomed to hearing—and that embattled defenders of traditional morality so often fail to marshal.

About the Author

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Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. He has received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement, and the Canterbury Medal of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He is chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Professor George holds degrees from Swarthmore, Harvard, and Oxford, as well as many honorary degrees. A regular guest on television and radio and a frequent contributor to popular and scholarly publications, he is the author of The Clash of Orthodoxies and coauthor of What Is Marriage? and Embryo: A Defense of Human Life.

Praise For…

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“This country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker.” —New York Times Magazine

“As a critic of liberalism, George is devastating. Generally attributing honest motives to his opponents, he nevertheless ruthlessly exposes [their] sophistries.”—
National Review

“There’s not a dull or insignificant page in the whole volume. . . . I don’t think we get better, or more consequential, commentary on the modern crisis.” —Washington Times

“Brilliant . . . Should be required reading.” —Commentary

“Puts George’s highly burnished philosophical and constitutional learning on full display . . . George speaks for a sizable number of conscientious objectors to America’s ruling liberal secularism.” —New York Times Book Review

“George’s claim to that title [‘This country’s most influential conservative Christian thinker’] is made abundantly clear in this collection of incisive, accessible essays, which seek to expose and confront the dogmas of liberal secularism while also directing and deepening modern conservatism. . . . Intended for a wide audience, the book deserves one.” —Claremont Review of Books

“Could not be more timely. A treasure trove of thought-provoking reflections by one of the best minds of our time.” —Mary Ann Glendon, from the foreword

“An important primer on the most pressing issues of our time . . . George’s incomparable expertise will give even the most seasoned reader new insights.” —Catholic World Report

“Few thinkers speak as clearly as Robert P. George. . . . He is a model democratic citizen. . . . The book offers some of the strongest arguments at all levels of public discourse, from anthropology to the meaning of conscience and marriage.” —Library of Law and Liberty

“One of the nation’s most respected legal theorists . . . Even people who profoundly disagree with some of his conclusions [respect] his sheer brilliance, the analytic power of his arguments, the range of his knowledge . . . [and] a deeply principled conviction, a profound and enduring integrity.” —Elena Kagan, Supreme Court justice

“One of the most incisive legal and moral thinkers working today.” —First Things

“An indispensable man.” —Touchstone