Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022!

Americans do this at Thanksgiving, and it is a beautiful tradition. However, I am only “half-American,” so I feel the need to express my special gratitude at this time of the year towards:

– Leiden University that made most of the things below possible and also allowed me this year to exchange views with a small, highly talented group of Master’s students in Constitutional and Administrative Law for eight weeks on the book Democracy Before Liberalism in Theory and Practice by Josiah Ober;

– Dr. Patrick Overeem (Vrije Universiteit) who had the brilliant idea over a year ago of putting together a Dutch-language introduction to postliberalism for the Thijmgenootschap. Thanks also to the other contributors to the volume, the result has already come out in print;

– Prof. Sophie van Bijsterveld (Radboud University), with whom I set up an international sequel to our earlier Dutch-language Tocqueville volume in the context of her Tocqueville, Religion and Democracy project. The two Teams sessions of five hours each that we had at the end of the summer with a global group of authors were an absolute pleasure;

– Dr. Leonard Taylor (Institute of Technology Sligo), with whom I submitted a now accepted panel proposal on “Human Dignity and Common Good Constitutionalism” during the upcoming ICLARS Conference in Spain. Also contributing to the panel and the anticipated volume will be Prof. Adrian Vermeule (Harvard Law School) and Dr. Conor Casey (University of Liverpool School of Law & Social Justice), among others;

– Trey Dimsdale, J.D., and Jordan J. Ballor, D. theol., Ph.D., who invited me as Senior Fellow of the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy and Member of the Executive Editorial Council of the Journal of Religion, Culture & Democracy, respectively. Those are little less than essential lifelines for a “half-American” like me.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the considerable debt I owe, intellectually and otherwise, to the “Great Books” I (re)read this year, from Plato to Tocqueville. Combined with a series of more modern classics, this has laid a solid, further foundation for my hoped-for new monograph.

It should be possible for those who read closely to form an idea from the above of the topic of that monograph. It is a great privilege to live in a time where so much is culturally, socially, and politically in flux. The field of Constitutional Studies will only become more topical as a result – in particular, what is true, good, and beautiful therein.

I wish all direct and further-off colleagues, collaborative partners, and followers on social media, including the increasingly close community of followers on Twitter (@hmtennapel), a very Merry Christmas. I look forward to continuing and strengthening our ties in the new year!