INTERVIEW: Jerry Brown: Learning to Live with Our Limits

Jerry Brown, onetime Jesuit seminarian, believes that sin is original and selfish instincts natural, and he also suspects that America is experiencing a "counterreformation" — against the expansive governmental policies of past years. What makes these views especially striking, of course, is that Brown, 37, is the Democratic Governor of California. In his first year in office, he has curbed growth in his state's burgeoning governmental employment and spending. He has admonished Californians to lower their sights, prepare to make needed sacrifices instead of slaking the urge to consume, and accept unaccustomed notions of inherent limits instead of boundless growth.

That...