William F. May, Testing the National Covenant: Some Thoughts in Response

Of course it is a pleasure and an honor to be able to respond to Testing the National Covenant by William May1 who has helped to keep the covenant framework a 'living tradition,' to use MacIntyre's phrase. By doing this, May has drawn upon a critical strand of Christian tradition that counters or corrects many of the damaging aspects of capitalist modernity. Covenantal forms are able to stand against forms of instrumental rationality and hyper-individualism present in contractual frameworks. But they also have the capacity to counter with pluralist claims some forms of homogenizing exclusion and boundary blurring that can be mobilized by ideas of community. Adapted from the source document.