
John von Heyking
John von Heyking is Professor of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge, in Alberta, Canada, where he teaches political philosophy and religion and politics. He is author of Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World (2001), and coeditor of Friendship and Politics: Essays in Political Thought (2008) and Civil Religion in Political Thought (2010), as well as two volumes of The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin. The topics of his scholarly articles include friendship, cosmopolitanism, liberal education, multiculturalism, empire, civil religion, political representation, citizenship, republicanism, just war, Islamic political thought, leadership, America as symbol, and religious liberty in Canada. His editorials have appeared in the Globe and Mail (Toronto), Calgary Herald, C2C: Canada’s Journal of Ideas, and Comment. He was the 2010 Hill Lecturer and is currently president of Civitas, “a society where ideas meet.” He is currently at work on a book-length study on the political significance of friendship.
Read John von Heyking’s Essays

It has been said that Marbury v. Madison is the most significant case ever decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The accolade may be overstated because the legal dispute between Marbury and Madison was left unresolved.
Political thinking in the modern democratic era easily lends itself to the reliance on simplifying labels – in other words, ideologies.
Last year I decided to fix our deck. It’s big, about 600 square feet, nine feet off the ground, and it was falling apart. Joists were rotting, and the whole thing was resting on one beam, when there should’ve been three. My foot went through the floor a couple of times.
In this essay, one of our student authors examines how Roman ideals of civic duty and freedom influenced the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates, revealing their lasting impact on America's founding and modern democracy.
Biographer Ron Chernow explains, “Mark Twain has long been venerated as an emblem of Americana.” In this fascinating biography, Chernow explains why. Though the book runs to 1200 pp, it never becomes tedious; on the contrary, it is an enthralling read.
Until recently, anyone who believed there was anything fishy about the U.S. organ donation system was labeled a conspiracy theorist. Yet now the old adage: “What’s the difference between conspiracy and truth? About six months,” rings true again, as so-called conspiracy theorists have been proven right by none other than the federal Health and Resources Services Administration (HRSA) itself.
“War made the state,” said the political scientist Charles Tilly, “and the state made war.” Tilly was talking about actual states, but the same could be said about metaphorical states: states of mind, or perhaps of the soul.