What Rubio’s Athens speech left out

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s thoughtful and inspiring speech delivered at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, deserves to be remembered for a long time to come, especially in an age increasingly dominated by ideological slogans and short attention spans.

The speech combines impressive erudition and soaring rhetoric with an astute, if inevitably controversial, analysis of the contemporary international scene. More fundamentally, it seeks to come to terms with the foundational virtues and principles that have defined Western civilization since its origins in Greek antiquity.

His critics were not wrong to note what he largely presupposed — that spiritedness must be guided by practical reason.

The Athens speech only indirectly addresses the biblical pole that has also informed and shaped the Western heart, mind, and soul. Given the