Looking for the perfect Father's Day gift? A welcome addition to your summer reading list? A timely inspiration to dig deeper in your faith? “On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer” fits all three bills.
This treasure of a book offers a glimpse into the central role Catholicism played in Antonin Scalia's personal life and the late Supreme Court justice's understanding of religious liberty in our public life.
Christopher Scalia, the eighth of Justice Scalia's nine children, and Ed Whelan, a former Scalia clerk and now head of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, are the co-editors of this volume. Their previous collaboration was the 2017 New York Times best seller, “Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith and Life Well Lived.” This time around, they focus on the justice's views on faith in American society and its protection under the law, as expressed in speeches and Justice Scalia's better-known opinions and articles. The new book's special charm comes in the reflections of people close to Justice Scalia on the impact his Catholic witness had on their lives.
Especially moving is Justice Clarence Thomas' foreword. “Nino did not discuss his faith with me often,” he writes, “but his deep belief in God was implicit in everything he did.” By most accounts, the lives of these two giants of American law prior to sitting together on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be a study in contrasts. But, as Justice Thomas observes:
“For different reasons and from different origins, we were heading in the same direction. So we walked together and worked together for a quarter century. And along the way we developed an unbreakable bond of trust and deep affection.”
Such is the friendship between two Christian gentlemen.
Justice Scalia had been collecting his speeches on religion for publication prior to his February 2016 passing. The completion of this effort would not have occurred without the efforts of Justice Scalia's wife, Maureen, and their children. Christopher's insightful editorial commentary precedes many of the chapters and two of his siblings offer touching submissions. The Scalia family's contributions should come as no surprise. As Taylor Meehan, a former judicial clerk, remarked, “[T]he most visible sign of the justice's faith was his marriage to Maureen and their nine children.”
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