Political Liberalism, Religion, and the Prophetic Tradition
Political Liberalism, Religion, and the Prophetic Tradition
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Date
2007-06-28
Authors
Pegram, Jeffrey
Advisor
Strike, Kenneth A.
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Abstract
Of late a literature has developed with a more negative view of the role of
religion in promoting citizenship. This literature reflects three main themes. First,
concern about the spillover of illiberal values into public life due to socialization
infused with patriarchy. Second, a concern for individual autonomy due to uncritical
adherence to inherited beliefs and minimal exposure to a broad range of alternative
views. Third, a concern for the cultivation of democratic values due to a kind of
radical sectarianism that places them at risk. Arguments that advance these themes
have focused on religious groups that are fundamentalist and isolationist. While most
authors note that not all religious groups are like this, the overall effect of this
literature has been to permit fundamentalist and isolationist groups to stand for
religion generally via assumptions that they differ from other groups merely in being
more extreme and via the failure to consider the educational implications of
alternative religious orientations.
In this dissertation I argue the following claims regarding this negative view
of the civic importance of religion: 1) it does not provide a convincing account of the
relationship between private associations and civic virtue; 2) it ignores the broad
acceptance of "free faith" by most religions (a commitment related to autonomy); 3)
it ignores religious traditions that emphasize civic responsibility, tolerance and social
justice as articles of faith (commitments related to democratic character and
democratic governance).
This dissertation explores a religious orientation whose educational
implications for civic virtue differ quite significantly from isolationists and
fundamentalists: the prophetic Christian tradition. I assert that the strand of faith
encountered within the prophetic tradition necessarily implicates involvement within
the political dimension of life in all its aspects - cultural, economic, and
governmental; and that it sustains a vision of citizenship that constitutes a religious
vocation for believers qua citizens that is broadly compatible with and supportive of
central liberal democratic values - namely reciprocity, mutual respect, tolerance, and
justice.