It was said by Fr. Raymond deSouza at Fr. Richard John Neuhaus' funeral, that one of RJN's favorite expressions was, come the day of the great prolepsis, he would see inscribed over the gates of the Messianic eternal city of God... "From the Wonderful People Who Brought You New York City: The New Jerusalem". (American Babylon p.2) The wry wit and wisdom of this quote is typical of RJN's many contributions in arguing for the place of religion within culture. His predictions of the despair that results from post-modernist secularism's inability to answer the great existential questions, is obvious today with the attendant collapse of one's individual sense of well-being as a citizen of western culture, in the shifting mores of 21st century life. Put simply, RJN believed that he would meet his God on that day as an American. That the understanding of the 'first principles' spoken of in the Declaration of Independence which launched and sustained t...