Reassessing Religion's Place in a Liberal Democracy Brian Stiltner Sacred Heart University, [email protected]
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Sacred Heart University DigitalCommons@SHU Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Publications 10-2000 Reassessing Religion's Place in a Liberal Democracy Brian Stiltner Sacred Heart University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/rel_fac Part of the Ethics in Religion Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Stiltner, Brian, "Reassessing Religion's Place in a Liberal Democracy" (2000). Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications. Paper 4. http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/rel_fac/4 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 26 Number 4 / October 2000 Religious Studies Review/ 819 on the destructive aspects of religion, although they admit that reli- REASSESSING RELIGION’S PLACE gion is no panacea for a democracy. This rise of a more balanced IN A LIBERAL DEMOCRACY and appreciative account of religion’s role in liberal democracy bodes well for both liberal political theory and Christian public the- RELIGION AND CONTEMPORARYLIBERALISM ology. In this essay, I will consider several works that are represen- Edited by Paul J. Weithman tative of this trend. The literature relevant to the debate about reli- Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997 gion and liberalism is immense; my limiting principle here is to Pp. viii + 315. Cloth, $48.00, __paper, $23.00. focus on two kinds of recent works by American and British au- RELIGION IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE: THE PLACE OF thors: those in which liberal philosophers and religious thinkers de- RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS IN POLITICAL DEBATE bate the role of religion in liberal society and those by Christian By Robert Audi and Nicholas Wolterstorff theologians and ethicists who explicitly engage contemporary lib- Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997 eral theory. These books demonstrate that the debate between reli- gious thought and liberal theory has grown less strained and more x 180. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $17.95. Pp. + constructive in the last few years. RELIGION IN PUBLIC LIFE: A DILEMMA FOR DEMOCRACY By Ronald F. Thiemann The Liberalism of Reasoned Respect Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1996 Pp. xiv + 186. Paper, $17.95. Liberal democracy as a political system has been much in demand CHRISTIAN JUSTICE AND PUBLIC POLICY for its commitment to liberty, equality, human rights, and limited By Duncan B. Forrester government. Witness, in the past decade, pro-democracy demon- New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997 strations in such countries as China, Indonesia, and Iran and the suc- Pp. xiv + 274. Cloth, $64.95; paper, $22.95. cessful though fragile strides toward freedom under constitutional government in South Africa, Nicaragua, and the satellites and coun- CHRISTIANITY AND LIBERAL SOCIETY tries of the former Soviet Union. At the same time, the theory of lib- By Robert Song eralism is under fire as never before, even among defenders of the Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997 liberal democratic system. Scholars and the general public alike Pp. x + 250. $65.00. have been finding the liberal paradigm unsatisfying for numerous reasons, among which are its implications for religious citizens. To understand the works under review, we must first have a clear and Reviewer: Brian Stiltner sympathetic description of liberal democracy a system and a the- Sacred Heart University as ory. Fairfeld, CT 06432 Anyone who hazards a definition of liberal democracy hastens to wo postulates about religion’s place in contemporary liberal add that there are a number of varieties. Liberalism, a family of democracies hold wide sway in academic literature. One is philosophical thought with roots in the Enlightenment, prizes the Tthat religion is increasingly insignificant in public life; the rational self and seeks to protect the self s liberties through commit- other is that it is too divisive to be constructive in that forum. Take ments to limited government, human rights, and the free market. as representative of these positions two well-received works by Democracy is a family of approaches to political organization leading French intellectuals. Marcel Gauchet’s The Disenchant- wherein power ultimately resides with the people themselves, who ment ofthe World (1 997) argues that religion has finally come to its prototypically exercise it through the ballot. Liberalism and democ- end in modern societies. The rise of the state some five millennia racy tend to go hand in hand despite the tensions between the indi- ago initiated the slow withdrawal of the gods from human society, a vidualist motif of the former and the majoritarian motif of the latter. process brought to its logical conclusion by Christianity, which has Making the linkage explicit, Nicholas Wolterstorff in Religion in unwittingly contributed to its own privatization. By contrast, Gilles the Public Square (1997) names four core ideas that animate liberal Kepel holds that religion is back with a vengeance: around the democracy: citizens enjoy equal protection and equalfreedom un- world, religious groups and movements became significant politi- der the law; through the vote they possess an equal voice in political cal factors in the 1980s and 1990s. Kepel’s dismay at the resurgence decisions; and the state takes a position of neutrality regarding the of conservative political movements in Christianity, Judaism, and diversity of religions and other worldviews within society. Then he Islam is suggested by his title, The Revenge of God (1994). Al- adds two qualifications. First, this is an ideal type, for “no society is though there are ways to hold onto a part of both theses simulta- anything than more or less a liberal democracy” (70). Second, the neously, in their strong forms they obviously contradict one term liberal has come to apply both to existing liberal democra- another. Surely one of them must be correct? The books presently cies-such as the US,the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands-and to under review suggest another possibility: both theses are wrong. a theoretical framework, “the liberal position.” The liberal position Despite the perceptions of religion held by such writers as holds that the proper goal of political action is justice (or a broader Gauchet and Kepel, scholars from a number of disciplines have social good that includes justice), the meaning of which is to be de- been discovering and elucidating religion’s constructive role in lib- termined by a process that is neutral with regard to religious and eral democratic societies. To Gauchet, these authors say that reli- other worldviews. These qualifications are points too often glossed gion is by no means politically feeble; it has shaped and continues to over. Among other things, they entail that liberal democracies all shape the political, economic, and cultural systems that govern deviate in some ways from the ideal of the liberal position. Liberal modem societies.To Kepel, they say that it is inappropriate to focus theorists will either have to make some room for these deviations, Volume %3 Number 4 / October ao00 including certain accommodations for religion, or show why and sons whose force does not depend on God, theological doctrines, or how they can justly be eliminated. religious authorities. Audi encapsulatesthe argument in two princi- That the latter task is neither as simple nor as desirable as many ples. The principle of secular rationale “says that one has a prima liberal theorists have supposed is the view of most contributors to facie obligation not to advocate or support any law or public policy Religion and Contemporary Liberalism, a collection of eleven es- that restricts human conduct, unless one has, and is willing to offer, says, which emerged from a conference held at the University of adequate secular reason for this advocacy or support” (25). The Notre Dame in 1996. For the purposes of the debate, Paul principle of secular motivation says that one has the same obliga- Weithman, the organizer of the conference and editor of the vol- tion to abstain from advocacy unless one is sufficiently motivated ume, coins the tern “the liberalism of reasoned respect” (LRR). by a secular reason. This strain of contemporary liberalism keys on the same ideas as One obvious objection from the standpoint of religious faith is those Wolterstorff identifies in the liberal position. With the goal of that these principles appear to require religious citizens, as Stephen moving toward “an ideal well-ordered society of civility and mutual Carter puts it, “to split their public and private selves” when they en- respect,” proponents of LRR “attempt to isolate a set of values and ter the public forum and “to remake themselves before they are al- principles that reasonable citizens could willingly and publicly en- lowed to press policy arguments” (1993, 8.56). Audi says that al- dorse as the basis of that society’s political arrangements” (4). though religious and civic motives are distinct, we should expect Given the pluralism of modem societies, it is assumed that religious them often to cooperate. He expresses this expectation in theprinci- values and principles cannot serve this function.