Religion in Liberal Political Philosophy

Abstract

In recent years, the notion of religion has received increased salience both in academic and in wider public debate, yet it is still a category that liberal political philosophers are uncomfortable with. This is somewhat paradoxical because key liberal notions (state sovereignty, toleration, individual freedom, the rights of conscience, public reason) were elaborated as a response to seventeenth-century European wars of religion, and the fundamental structure of liberalism is rooted in the Western experience of politico-religious conflict. So a reappraisal of this tradition—and of its validity in the light of contemporary challenges—is well overdue. This book offers the first extensive engagement with religion from liberal political philosophers. The volume analyses, from within the liberal philosophical tradition itself, the key notions of conscience, public reason, non-establishment, and neutrality. Insofar as the contemporary religious revival is seen as posing a challenge to liberalism, it seems more crucial than ever to explore the specific resources that the liberal tradition has to answer it.

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