Morality and Religion in Liberal Democratic Societies

Morality and Religion in Liberal Democratic Societies PDF Author: Gordon Louis Anderson
Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
"The struggle for liberal democracy, individual freedom, and human and political rights historically has depended upon the moral codes of Western civilization rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. However in an increasing pluralistic and secular world, those codes are difficult to maintain. Without a consensus on values and the exercise of individual responsibility, liberal democratic societies and the human and political values they enshrine may become imperilled." "The problem of the relationship between morality and the liberal democratic state is examined in this volume from the perspectives of democratic theory, traditional religion, the modern state, and the evolution of religion in the post-communist world." "In the first section, on democratic theory, professors R.A.D. Grant, David Levy, Michael Perry, and Morton A. Kaplan discuss the theoretical relationship between moral values and the democratic state." "In the second section Gershon Weiler, Batista Jean Mondin, and Dean Kelley discuss the historical struggles of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism with and within liberal democratic societies. The inconsistencies of many traditional religious perspectives with a culturally pluralistic society are examined." "In the following section, A. James Reichley discusses the pluralist experiment in America; George Weigle sees a new opportunity for the Catholic Church in America; John Carroll discusses the tensions of modern liberalism with culture in general; and Alain Besancon discusses the Catholic church in Europe. Possibilities for the resolution of religious perspectives within pluralistic and liberal democratic societies are examined by scholars who want both to be faithful to their traditions and to integrate them into modern democracies." "In the penultimate section of the book, Roger Scruton analyzes problems of sexual morality and identity and the liberal consensus; Geoffrey Partington discusses how the purge of traditional moral training from the public schools in liberal democracies led to inadequate character development of our youth and the outrage of parents. Morton A. Kaplan shows how the so-called "right to be left alone" is invoked by the courts in a way that is destructive to social health." "In the concluding section, Milowit Kuninski looks at the future of religion in former communist societies in which both official atheism and world consciousness were instilled by state ideology. Gordon Anderson discusses the evolution of religion and the value instruction in schools in the pluralistic societies of the global democratic community that is emerging as the 21st century approaches."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Morality and Religion in Liberal Democratic Societies

Morality and Religion in Liberal Democratic Societies PDF Author: Gordon Louis Anderson
Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The struggle for liberal democracy, individual freedom, and human and political rights historically has depended upon the moral codes of Western civilization rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. However in an increasing pluralistic and secular world, those codes are difficult to maintain. Without a consensus on values and the exercise of individual responsibility, liberal democratic societies and the human and political values they enshrine may become imperilled." "The problem of the relationship between morality and the liberal democratic state is examined in this volume from the perspectives of democratic theory, traditional religion, the modern state, and the evolution of religion in the post-communist world." "In the first section, on democratic theory, professors R.A.D. Grant, David Levy, Michael Perry, and Morton A. Kaplan discuss the theoretical relationship between moral values and the democratic state." "In the second section Gershon Weiler, Batista Jean Mondin, and Dean Kelley discuss the historical struggles of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism with and within liberal democratic societies. The inconsistencies of many traditional religious perspectives with a culturally pluralistic society are examined." "In the following section, A. James Reichley discusses the pluralist experiment in America; George Weigle sees a new opportunity for the Catholic Church in America; John Carroll discusses the tensions of modern liberalism with culture in general; and Alain Besancon discusses the Catholic church in Europe. Possibilities for the resolution of religious perspectives within pluralistic and liberal democratic societies are examined by scholars who want both to be faithful to their traditions and to integrate them into modern democracies." "In the penultimate section of the book, Roger Scruton analyzes problems of sexual morality and identity and the liberal consensus; Geoffrey Partington discusses how the purge of traditional moral training from the public schools in liberal democracies led to inadequate character development of our youth and the outrage of parents. Morton A. Kaplan shows how the so-called "right to be left alone" is invoked by the courts in a way that is destructive to social health." "In the concluding section, Milowit Kuninski looks at the future of religion in former communist societies in which both official atheism and world consciousness were instilled by state ideology. Gordon Anderson discusses the evolution of religion and the value instruction in schools in the pluralistic societies of the global democratic community that is emerging as the 21st century approaches."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy

The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy PDF Author: Michael J. Perry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521115183
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This important new work elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy.

Religion in Liberal Political Philosophy

Religion in Liberal Political Philosophy PDF Author: Cécile Laborde
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198794398
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
This volume provides a significant new contribution to the understanding of the normative status of religion in liberal political philosophy.

A Letter Concerning Toleration. By John Locke, Esq

A Letter Concerning Toleration. By John Locke, Esq PDF Author: John Locke
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Toleration
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description


Liberalism’s Religion

Liberalism’s Religion PDF Author: Cécile Laborde
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674976266
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Cécile Laborde argues that religion is more than a statement of belief or a moral code. It refers to comprehensive ways of life, theories of justice, modes of association, and vulnerable collective identities. By disaggregating these dimensions, she addresses questions about whether Western secularism and religion can be applied more universally.

Bioethics in a Liberal Society

Bioethics in a Liberal Society PDF Author: Maxwell John Charlesworth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521449526
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
This book is an original discussion of contemporary issues in bioethics.

Love and Power

Love and Power PDF Author: Michael J. Perry
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195359356
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
This study examines the uses of religious ideas in political discourse in a liberal democracy.

Membership and Morals

Membership and Morals PDF Author: Nancy L. Rosenblum
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069118769X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
In recent years, membership has dropped in traditional voluntary associations such as Rotary Clubs, Jaycees, and bowling leagues. At the same time, concern is rising about the growth of paramilitary and hate groups. Scholars have warned that these trends are undermining civic society by creating a dangerous number of isolated, mistrustful individuals and organized, antisocial renegades. In this provocative book, however, Nancy Rosenblum takes a new, less narrowly political approach to the study of groups. And she reaches more optimistic conclusions about the state of civil society. Rosenblum argues that we should judge associations not only by what they do for civic virtue, but also by what they do for individual members. She shows that groups of all kinds--among them religious groups, corporations, homeowner associations, secret societies, racial and cultural identity groups, prayer groups, and even paramilitary groups--fill deep psychological and moral needs. And she contends that the failure to recognize this has contributed to an alarmist view of their social impact. For example, she argues that, although extremist groups have obvious antisocial aims, they constrain individuals who would be even more dangerous as maladjusted loners. And she examines the rapid growth of small "support groups"--which are usually dismissed as politically irrelevant--and shows that the moral support people find in such places as prayer groups and self-help groups helps to cultivate the social trust some scholars say is disappearing. Rosenblum concludes that, for practical and principled reasons, American democracy should permit expansive freedom of association, illustrating her case with discussion of specific cases in law. Rosenblum recognizes, however, that freedom has a price. She reminds us that some groups have oppressive and even criminal tendencies, and she explores what liberal democracy should do to ensure that individuals also have freedom within associations and freedom to exit. Throughout, Rosenblum writes eloquently and with a powerful moral voice, drawing on law, practical politics, and psychology to produce an original political theory of the moral uses of pluralism. The book adds remarkable depth and subtlety to one of the leading subjects in contemporary social and political debate.

The Religion of Democracy

The Religion of Democracy PDF Author: Amy Kittelstrom
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698192249
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
A history of religion’s role in the American liberal tradition through the eyes of seven transformative thinkers Today we associate liberal thought and politics with secularism. When we argue over whether the nation’s founders meant to keep religion out of politics, the godless side is said to be liberal. But the role of religion in American politics has always been far more nuanced and complex than today’s debates would suggest and closer to the heart of American intellectual life than is commonly understood. American democracy was intended by its creators to be more than just a political system, and in The Religion of Democracy, historian Amy Kittelstrom shows how religion and democracy have worked together as universal ideals in American culture—and as guides to moral action and the social practice of treating one another as equals who deserve to be free. The first people in the world to call themselves “liberals” were New England Christians in the early republic, for whom being liberal meant being receptive to a range of beliefs and values. The story begins in the mid-eighteenth century, when the first Boston liberals brought the Enlightenment into Reformation Christianity, tying equality and liberty to the human soul at the same moment these root concepts were being tied to democracy. The nineteenth century saw the development of a robust liberal intellectual culture in America, built on open-minded pursuit of truth and acceptance of human diversity. By the twentieth century, what had begun in Boston as a narrow, patrician democracy transformed into a religion of democracy in which the new liberals of modern America believed that where different viewpoints overlap, common truth is revealed. The core American principles of liberty and equality were never free from religion but full of religion. The Religion of Democracy re-creates the liberal conversation from the eighteenth century to the twentieth by tracing the lived connections among seven thinkers through whom they knew, what they read and wrote, where they went, and how they expressed their opinions—from John Adams to William James to Jane Addams; from Boston to Chicago to Berkeley. Sweeping and ambitious, The Religion of Democracy is a lively narrative of quintessentially American ideas as they were forged, debated, and remade across our history.

Faith, Morality, and Civil Society

Faith, Morality, and Civil Society PDF Author: Dale McConkey
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739104835
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Editors Dale McConkey and Peter Augustine Lawler explore the contributions that religious faith and morality can make to a civil society.