Theological and Political Liberalisms
Several highly critical theological responses to political liberalism have appeared in recent years. John Milbank, continuing his onslaught on all things modern, complains that political liberalism's "empty heart" suffers from a "totalitarian drift" toward "an increasin...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
2008
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 2008, Volume: 24, Issue: 2, Pages: 433-462 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Several highly critical theological responses to political liberalism have appeared in recent years. John Milbank, continuing his onslaught on all things modern, complains that political liberalism's "empty heart" suffers from a "totalitarian drift" toward "an increasingly joyless and puritanical world." For Oliver O'Donovan, liberalism is "a false posture of transcendence" and modernity is "conceived as Antichrist, a parodie and corrupt development of Christian social order." Robert Song warns against "the partial and limited character" of liberalism's freedoms and proclaims that "a responsible theology will learn to articulate its ‘No’" to liberal political society. Other commentators offer critiques of particular aspects of political liberalism, often suggesting revisions based on their own theological perspectives. These critical voices join others such as Stanley Hauerwas, one of liberalism's most outspoken theological critics for more than a quarter century, and they continue a line of critique that extends back through Reinhold Niebuhr and Karl Barth.Not all the theological voices are critical. Christophe Insole, for example, finds that "politically liberal principles are compatible with a full-blooded and theologically main-stream Christian commitment." Several Roman Catholic theologians have commented on the increasing mutuality between liberal democracy and Roman Catholic political and social teachings. Paul Sigmund notes that "the relation between Catholicism and liberal democracy has now become a positive and, one would hope, a mutually reinforcing one, even if there are a number of continuing tensions between them." And Daniel Dombrowski offers a general defense of Rawlsian liberalism against claims that it is hostile to religion. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0748081400001661 |