This week (March 17) on The Open Door we discuss the peril, promise, and possibility of secularism. Our special guest is Nathaniel Peters. He is Contributing Editor of Public Discourse and Director of the Morningside Institute.

1. Could you begin by telling us a bit about your background

2. We’re regular readers of Public Discourse. How did it come about? Where is it headed?

3. During the lead-up to the presidential election, our colleague Charlie Camosy made the case for the American Solidarity Party in Public Discourse. How did this come about, and how was it received?

4. Could you sketch for us your recent criticism of Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley’s new book It Is Right and Just?

5. To its credit, Public Discourse welcomed Hahn and McGinley’s reply to your criticism. Have the three of you have found common ground? What disagreements remain?

6. How has the thinking of St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI helped shaped your recent exchange, perhaps on both sides?

7. Can anyone blame Ambrose Bierce’s dismissal of conservatives as those who are enamored of old evils and liberals as those who want to introduce new evils? And were he here, might he dismiss progressives as intent on going somewhere chiefly by supplanting argument with memes?