You don’t have to be a political scientist to recognize that American democracy is in crisis. It’s easy to see that we are living in a time of significant social upheaval. The problem is that many of the potential solutions we put forward to address the issues do not go deep enough. Most people, including many American Christians, often make the mistake of thinking that we can resolve our issues through political solutions. But James Davison Hunter believes it is naive to narrowly focus our energies on politics, because the root cause of our difficulties is not political or economic, but rather cultural. In this episode, leading sociologist James Davison Hunter discusses his most recent book, “Democracy and Solidarity,” which tells the story of how we arrived at our present cultural moment and how we should respond in an appropriate way, especially as Christians. James provides insightful commentary regarding our post-Christian and increasingly post-liberal society, the destructive emergence of a new common culture of nihilism (which even Christians are tempted to embrace), and the call for the Church to rediscover its true identity and enact a vision of the Kingdom of God with courage, conviction, and imagination. James Davison Hunter is Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and the founder and director of the university’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Hunter is the author of several books and the originator of the term “culture war.” He is the foremost expert on culture and how culture changes.