The Christian Institute

The profoundly anti-Christian nature of Marxism has been well understood and well exposed in Christian writing. In comparison very little has been written about the powerful new political ideology of Libertarianism. This has emerged from the political right, but its influence extends across the political spectrum. In this publication Philip Vander Elst traces the roots of Libertarianism and considers its influence on politics today.

Libertarianism claims to promote freedom. But what does this mean in practice? Libertarians, like Communists, tend to be atheists, but does their hostility to God strengthen liberty or weaken it? Both also declare that marriage and other sexual lifestyles are equally valid. By contrast Christians know that a free society needs moral boundaries.

Libertarianism turns liberty into licence. Philip Vander Elst argues that its influence is reinforcing the cultural and social decay we see all around us. Liberty itself is in danger of committing suicide because the moral self-discipline required to sustain a free and civilised society is rapidly disappearing.


Philip Vander Elst is a freelance author, journalist and lecturer. For many years he was editor of Freedom Today and has also worked on the staff of the Centre for Policy Studies and the Institute of Economic Affairs. He read PPE at Oxford and has written widely on political, philosophical, economic and religious subjects for papers in Britain and the USA. His publications include: Idealism Without Illusions: A Foreign Policy for Freedom (Freedom Association, 1989); Resisting Leviathan: the Case Against a European State (Claridge Press, 1991); C.S. Lewis: Thinker of our Time (Claridge Press,1996); and The Principles of British Foreign Policy (Bruges Group, 1997).