Religious Voices In Public Places

Must religious voices keep quiet in public places? Does fairness in a plural society require it? Must the expression of religious belief be so authoritarian as to threaten civil peace? Do we need translation into 'secular' language, or should we try to manage polyglot conversation? How neutral is 'secular' language? Is a religious argument necessarily unreasonable? What issues are specific to Islam within this exchange? These are just some of the pressing questions addressed by Religious Voices in Public Places. Drawn from Australia, Canada, France, Ireland and England-as well as the United States-thirteen contributors take the long-running discussion about religion in the public square beyond its usual American confines. Religious Voices in Public Places comprehends both political philosophy and theology, and moves adeptly between political theory and practice. Whether offering critical analyses of key theorists such as John Rawls, Jeffrey Stout and Jürgen Habermas, or pursuing the issue of the public expression of religion into the debate about religious education in the USA, the legalisation of euthanasia in the UK, and human rights worldwide, this incisive volume speaks directly into crucial areas of religious and political complexity.

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The Politics of Religious Literacy challenges popular understandings of religious literacy as an inclusive framework for navigating religious diversity in the public sphere. Offering a new model, this book provides insights into the often-overlooked feelings and practices informing our questionably secular age.

Religious or spiritual beliefs underpin many controversies and conflicts in the contemporary world. Written by a range of scholarly contributors, this three-volume set provides contextual background information and detailed explanations of religious controversies across the globe. Controversies in Contemporary Religion: Education, Law, Politics, Society, and Spirituality is a three-volume set that addresses a wide variety of current religious issues, analyzing religion's role in the rise of fundamentalism, censorship, human rights, environmentalism and sustainability, sexuality, bioethics, and other questions of widespread interest. Providing in-depth context and analysis far beyond what's available in the news or online, this work will enable readers to understand the nature of and reasons for controversies in current headlines. The first volume covers theoretical and academic debates, the second looks at debates in the public square and ethical issues, while the third examines specific issues and case studies. These volumes bring detailed and careful debate of a range of controversies together in one place, including topics not often covered—for example, how religions promote or hinder social cohesion and peace, the relationship of religions to human rights, and the intersection of Buddhism and violence. Written by a range of experts that includes both established and emerging scholars, the text explains key debates in ways that are accessible and easy to understand for lay readers as well as undergraduate students researching particular issues or global religious trends.

Too often, says Nigel Biggar, contemporary Christian ethics poses a false choice either conservative theological integrity or liberal secular consensus. Behaving in Public explains both why and how Christians should resist these polar options. Informed by a frankly Christian theological vision of moral life and so turning toward the world with openness and curiosity, Biggar s succinct argument charts a third way forward. Common sense is usually bland and boring. Nigel Biggar s book Behaving in Public, however, is full of common sense that is anything but bland and boring. That s because Biggar employs his common sense polemically to show what s deficient in one and another position on speaking as a Christian in public, and to point to alternatives. Over and over I found myself saying, Yes, of course; he s right. This is a wonderfully fresh, perceptive, and sensible discussion. Nicholas Wolterstorff Yale University How can the church witness effectively in public debates in modern, mostly secular societies, without either losing its integrity or imposing its perspectives on others? In this important new book Nigel Biggar maintains that the integrity of the Christian message should not be confused with distinctiveness. . . . Offers a nuanced yet demanding position on the public role of the church, cutting through unhelpful dichotomies and reminding us that theological seriousness need not be sectarian or intolerant. Jean Porter University of Notre Dame Clear in thought, elegant in expression, and generous in dialogue, this book offers a new and convincing approach to Christian ethics. . . . Biggar argues for the integrity of a mature, discriminating, nonmoralizing Christian ethics which is inspired and equipped for critical engagement with the church and the wider public and which cares about the flourishing of both. Werner G. Jeanrond University of Glasgow Behaving in Public shows people who care about public life how to combine theological integrity and political effectiveness. . . . This is a theology that offers an alternative to today s polarized politics. Robin W. Lovin Southern Methodist University

What is the place of faith in public life in the UK? Beyond ‘secularism’ that seeks to relegate faith to the margins of public life, and a ‘Christian nation’ position that seeks to retain, or even regain, Christian public privilege, there is a third way. Faith in Democracy: Framing a Politics of Deep Diversity calls for an approach that maximises public space for the expression of faith-based visions within democratic fora while repudiating all traces of religious privilege. It argues for a truly conversational space, reflecting theologically on the contested concepts at the heart of the current debate about the place of faith in British public life: democracy, secularism, pluralism and public faith.

This book compares three approaches to public reason and to the public space accorded to religions: the liberal platform of an overlapping consensus proposed by John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas’s discourse ethical reformulation of Kant’s universalism and its realization in the public sphere, and the co-founding role which Paul Ricoeur attributes to the particular traditions that have shaped their cultures and the convictions of citizens. The premises of their positions are analysed under four aspects: (1) the normative framework which determines the specific function of public reason; (2) their anthropologies and theories of action; (3) the dimensions of social life and its concretization in a democratic political framework; (4) the different views of religion that follow from these factors, including their understanding of the status of metaphysical and religious truth claims, and the role of religion as a practice and conviction in a pluralist society. Recent receptions and critiques in English and German are brought into conversation: philosophers and theologians discuss the scope of public reason, and the task of translation from faith traditions, as well as the role they might have in the diversity of world cultures for shaping a shared cosmopolitan horizon.

Can religious arguments provide a reasonable, justified basis for restrictive (coercive) public policies regarding numerous ethically and politically controversial medical interventions, such as research with human embryos, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or using artificial wombs? With Rawls, we answer negatively. Liberally reasonable policies must address these controversial technologies on the basis of public reasons accessible to all, even if not fully agreeable by all. Further, public democratic deliberation requires participants to construct these policies as citizens who are agnostic with respect to the truth of all comprehensive doctrines, whether secular or religious. The goal of these deliberations is practical, namely, to identify reasonable policy options that reflect fair terms of cooperation in a liberal, pluralistic society. Further, religious advocates may participate in formal policymaking processes as reasonable liberal citizens. Finally, public reason evolves through the deliberative process and all the novel technological challenges medicine generates for bioethics and related public policies.