In his new book Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, US Vice President JD Vance presents a thoughtful and poignant exploration of Christian faith, but the work remains deeply at odds with the political company he keeps. The book grapples with the biblical question, “What must I do to be saved?”—not in a literal sense, but as a challenge to the destructive norms of modern society.
From Hillbilly Elegy to Spiritual Reflection
Vance’s earlier memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, chronicled the impact of substance abuse on rural America. In Communion, he extends that lens to the broader modern West, arguing that elite modernity’s expectations are as lethal for ambitious professionals as fentanyl is for the less privileged. He describes pervasive mechanisms in education and professional life that induct individuals into wanting what others want, rather than what is inherently desirable—such as emotional security, meaningful work, and hope in nurturing the next generation. A telling moment comes when Vance admits, “I knew exactly how to help my kid get into a good college but was woefully underprepared to make him a good man.”
The Critique of Conformity
Vance critiques the hyper-anxious conformity of moral opinion, recalling his time at Yale Law School where progressive orthodoxies held an iron grip. Expressing scepticism about abortion rights, he says, invited “instant excommunication from the inner circle of the elect.” He notes that both left and right sought assimilation into an administrative aristocracy that maximised personal liberty as income and status.
Finding Liberation in Guilt
Vance’s return to Christianity was shaped by two insights. First, he provocatively states, “I found liberation in guilt.” He argues that honest compassion requires a language of repentance and renewal. He gravitates toward Catholicism because it sees grace as absorbed over a long history of learning, contrasting with the quick spiritual fixes of his evangelical childhood. The beginning of Christian wisdom, he writes, comes through candour about one’s own failures and the capacity to respond to others with mercy and hope.
Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Critique
The Catholic perspective appeals to Vance because of its history of social analysis beyond narrow political polarisations. He invokes Pope Leo XIII’s 19th-century social vision, which stresses that economic life must enable human dignity, meaningful ownership of labour, and just wages. Vance offers a scathing account of a conversation with a critic of US immigration policy who argued that abundant migrant labour absolves employers from paying higher wages, guaranteeing better profits. This, Vance says, exemplifies the toxic, addictive cycle of profit- and status-driven activity.
Thread of Argument and Intellectual Context
Despite its loose structure, the book rehearses a view of modernity—particularly US modernity—seen in works by Robert Bellah and David Brooks. It focuses on anxiety and isolation from individualistic hopes, renews concern for “character,” and urges rediscovery of resources to raise the next generation well. This aligns with “Blue Labour” and “Red Toryism” in the UK. For Vance, the Christian vision is less about specific ethical absolutes than an attitude that allows acknowledging failure without despair, approaching others with generosity, and knowing that deepest desires point toward unconditional love.
The Unresolved Contradiction
The book leaves a looming question: what does any of this have to do with the Trump administration, of which Vance is a leading member? He dismisses early criticism of Trump as elite fastidiousness about “style” and insists on the first Trump administration’s “success,” but fails to connect it with the values in his pages. He ignores rampant corruption, verbal bullying, reckless foreign policies (his reservations about Ukraine funding would apply more to the Iran war fiasco), and murderous brutality in immigration enforcement. The book has been slated for its author rather than content. While not vacuous or vicious, it contains shaky arguments about traditional gender roles and claims that de-Christianisation directly causes racial conflict and gender division—hard to square with Christian nationalism’s record. It does not resolve the enigma of what makes Vance tick. He quotes a pastor telling an addict, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” The book’s own question remains: “Look at the company you keep.”
