The Meaning of Religious Freedom

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The Meaning of Religious Freedom
Modern Politics and the Democratic Resolution

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Franklin I. Gamwell - Author

SUNY Series in Religious Studies

Price: $60.50
Hardcover - 251 pages

Release Date: February 1995

ISBN10: 0-7914-2389-1
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2389-9

Price: $33.95
Paperback - 251 pages

Release Date: February 1995

ISBN10: 0-7914-2390-5
ISBN13: 978-0-7914-2390-5

Available as a Google eBook for other eReaders and tablet devices. Click icon below...

Summary

This is the most thorough philosophical analysis available of the principle of religious freedom. It draws on the thought of philosophers and political theorists (Rawls, Habermas, Murray, Rorty, Greenawalt, and Mead) rather than on the framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"It is the most thorough theoretical examination of the subject that is available today. The author takes up the best, most reliable interpretations of the issues with which he is dealing, compares and contrasts them after elucidating them carefully, and provides a conclusion that is careful, sound, and convincing. It is a conclusion that registers most fully within an intellectual context that is informed by the thought of Habermas, Rawls, Rorty, Murray, Greenwalt, and Mead." -- Walter H. Capps, University of California, Santa Barbara

The endorsement of religious freedom in the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States represents a modern revolution in the relation between politics and religion. In American politics there has been continual disagreement about the meaning of this constitutional principle, and widely-held views of religious freedom include much philosophical confusion. This book shows how a plurality of religious convictions can be politically united only by a free debate among different religious convictions.

The author demonstrates that religious freedom is a coherent political principle, and that this principle is the defining democratic commitment because all other political principles should be subject to assessment by the same free debate characterizing religious freedom. This book identifies the meaning of an authentically democratic constitution and the civility required of democratic citizens.

Franklin I. Gamwell is Professor of Religious Ethics at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Beyond Preference: Liberal Theories of Independent Associations and The Divine Good: Modern Moral Theory and the Necessity of God, and is co-editor of Existence and Actuality: Conversations with Charles Hartshorne and Economic Life: Process Interpretations and Critical Responses.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1. The Modern Political Problematic

1. Introduction
2. The Terms of the Problematic

Human Activity
Religion and Politics
The Present Purpose

Part 2. Nonrational Resolutions

3. The Privatist View: John Rawls

Religious Freedom and the Political Conception of Justice
The Privatist View: A Critique

4. The Partisan View: John Courtney Murray

Religious Freedom and Articles of Peace
The Partisan View: A Critique

5. The Pluralist View: Kent Greenawalt

Religious Freedom and the Reliance of Citizens
The Pluralist View: A Critique

Part 3. The Public View

6. The Enlightenment Rationale: Sidney E. Mead

The Essentials of Religion
The Conflict of Opinions

7. The Rationality of Comprehensive Convictions

The Necessity of Comprehensive Convictions
The Full Debate
The First Amendment

Part 4. The Democratic Resolution

8. Religious Freedom and Democratic Discourse

Political Discourse and Democratic Discourse
Political Discourse and Democratic Constitution
Political Discourse and Practical Politics

9. Religious Freedom and Democratic Civility

Religious Adherence and Democratic Decision
Religious Adherence and the Democratic Constitution
Religious Adherence and Democratic Civility

Epilogue: Religion and Modernity

Appendix: On the Comprehensive Order of Reflection
Human Activity and the Comprehensive Question
The Criterion of Comprehensive Reflection

Works Cited

Index

Related Subjects

Philosophy
Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Political Philosophy
Religion

30057/30058(WDE//)

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