The Theological Origins Of Liberalism

Author : Ismail Kurun
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2016-07-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781498527415

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The Theological Origins of Liberalism by Ismail Kurun Pdf

This eye-opening book offers a critical survey of the true origins of liberalism. It challenges the widely held belief among social scientists that liberalism was developed in opposition to Christianity. Beginning with the Protestant Reformation, it illustrates how Christian thinkers reinterpreted Christianity and used a set of indemonstrable biblical presuppositions from their reinterpretations to develop the first liberal ideas, starting a process that culminates in the birth of the first liberal political theory in the writings of a devout Christian philosopher, John Locke. It explains how the Protestant Reformation, covenant theology, anti-trinitarianism and medieval Christian natural law theories formed the foundations of liberalism. Thus, the central claim of this book is that liberalism is better understood as a radical reinterpretation of Christianity that emerged in the post-Reformation and early modern period. As a logical consequence of revealing the hitherto generally neglected roots of liberalism, it eventually proposes that a legally pluralist liberal political theory is the best way to maintain human dignity and peace in multi-religious societies of today’s globalized world.

Author : Eric Nelson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2019-10-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780674242951

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The Theology of Liberalism by Eric Nelson Pdf

One of our most important political theorists pulls the philosophical rug out from under modern liberalism, then tries to place it on a more secure footing. We think of modern liberalism as the novel product of a world reinvented on a secular basis after 1945. In The Theology of Liberalism, one of the country’s most important political theorists argues that we could hardly be more wrong. Eric Nelson contends that the tradition of liberal political philosophy founded by John Rawls is, however unwittingly, the product of ancient theological debates about justice and evil. Once we understand this, he suggests, we can recognize the deep incoherence of various forms of liberal political philosophy that have emerged in Rawls’s wake. Nelson starts by noting that today’s liberal political philosophers treat the unequal distribution of social and natural advantages as morally arbitrary. This arbitrariness, they claim, diminishes our moral responsibility for our actions. Some even argue that we are not morally responsible when our own choices and efforts produce inequalities. In defending such views, Nelson writes, modern liberals have implicitly taken up positions in an age-old debate about whether the nature of the created world is consistent with the justice of God. Strikingly, their commitments diverge sharply from those of their proto-liberal predecessors, who rejected the notion of moral arbitrariness in favor of what was called Pelagianism—the view that beings created and judged by a just God must be capable of freedom and merit. Nelson reconstructs this earlier “liberal” position and shows that Rawls’s philosophy derived from his self-conscious repudiation of Pelagianism. In closing, Nelson sketches a way out of the argumentative maze for liberals who wish to emerge with commitments to freedom and equality intact.

Author : Gary J. Dorrien
Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
Page : 534 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0664223540

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The Making of American Liberal Theology by Gary J. Dorrien Pdf

This text identifies the indigenous roots of American liberal theology and uncovers a wider, longer-running tradition than has been thought. Taking a narrative approach the text provides a biographical reading of important religious thinkers of the time.

Author : Pierre Manent
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 146 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2019-12-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691207193

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An Intellectual History of Liberalism by Pierre Manent Pdf

Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics. The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.

Author : Larry Siedentop
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 443 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674417533

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Inventing the Individual by Larry Siedentop Pdf

Here, in a grand narrative spanning 1,800 years of European history, a distinguished political philosopher firmly rejects Western liberalism’s usual account of itself: its emergence in opposition to religion in the early modern era. Larry Siedentop argues instead that liberal thought is, in its underlying assumptions, the offspring of the Church. “It is a magnificent work of intellectual, psychological, and spiritual history. It is hard to decide which is more remarkable: the breadth of learning displayed on almost every page, the infectious enthusiasm that suffuses the whole book, the riveting originality of the central argument, or the emotional power and force with which it is deployed.” —David Marquand, New Republic “Larry Siedentop has written a philosophical history in the spirit of Voltaire, Condorcet, Hegel, and Guizot...At a time when we on the left need to be stirred from our dogmatic slumbers, Inventing the Individual is a reminder of some core values that are pretty widely shared.” —James Miller, The Nation “In this learned, subtle, enjoyable and digestible work [Siedentop] has offered back to us a proper version of ourselves. He has explained us to ourselves...[A] magisterial, timeless yet timely work.” —Douglas Murray, The Spectator “Like the best books, Inventing the Individual both teaches you something new and makes you want to argue with it.” —Kenan Malik, The Independent

Author : Michael Allen Gillespie
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 762 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2010-10-21
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781459606128

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The Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gillespie Pdf

Taking as his starting point the collapse of the medieval world, Gillespie argues that from the very beginning moderns sought not to eliminate religion but to support a new view of religion and its place in human life- and that they did so not out of hostility but in order to sustain certain religious beliefs. He goes on to explore the ideas of such figures as William of Ockham, Petrarch, Erasmus, Luther, Descartes, and Hobbes, showing that modernity is best understood as the result of a series of attempts to formulate a new and coherent metaphysics or theology.

Author : Thomas L. Pangle
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2010-05-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780226645520

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The Theological Basis of Liberal Modernity in Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws" by Thomas L. Pangle Pdf

The Spirit of the Laws—Montesquieu’s huge, complex, and enormously influential work—is considered one of the central texts of the Enlightenment, laying the foundation for the liberally democratic political regimes that were to embody its values. In his penetrating analysis, Thomas L. Pangle brilliantly argues that the inherently theological project of Enlightenment liberalism is made more clearly—and more consequentially— in Spirit than in any other work. In a probing and careful reading, Pangle shows how Montesquieu believed that rationalism, through the influence of liberal institutions and the spread of commercial culture, would secularize human affairs. At the same time, Pangle uncovers Montesquieu’s views about the origins of humanity’s religious impulse and his confidence that political and economic security would make people less likely to sacrifice worldly well-being for otherworldly hopes. With the interest in the theological aspects of political theory and practice showing no signs of diminishing, this book is a timely and insightful contribution to one of the key achievements of Enlightenment thought.

Author : Raymond Plant
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 404 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2001-01-29
Category : History
ISBN : 0521438810

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Politics, Theology and History by Raymond Plant Pdf

This book examines the moral foundations of liberal societies through the role of Christian belief in public policy.

Author : Anthony Mario Ludovici
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 1967
Category : Fascism
ISBN : STANFORD:36105034880109

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The Specious Origins of Liberalism: the Genesis of a Delusion by Anthony Mario Ludovici Pdf

Author : Theo Hobson
Publisher : Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2013-10-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780802868404

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Reinventing Liberal Christianity by Theo Hobson Pdf

In past years liberal Christianity challenged centuries of authoritarian tradition and had great political influence. Today it is widely dismissed as a watering-down of the faith, and more conservative forms of Christianity are increasingly dominant. Can the liberal Christian tradition recover its influence? Hobson argues that a simple revival is not possible, because liberal Christianity consists of two traditions. He aims to transform liberal Christianity through the rediscovery of faith and ritual.

Author : Helena Rosenblatt
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2020-02-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691203966

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The Lost History of Liberalism by Helena Rosenblatt Pdf

"The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism," revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights. It was only during the Cold War and America's growing world hegemony that liberalism was refashioned into an American ideology focused so strongly on individual freedoms."--

Author : Hubert Jedin,John Patrick Dolan
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 440 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1981
Category : Church history
ISBN : NWU:35556018014688

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History of the Church: The church in the age of liberalism by Hubert Jedin,John Patrick Dolan Pdf

Author : Robert Song
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2006-01-12
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780198269335

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Christianity and Liberal Society by Robert Song Pdf

Liberalism forms the dominant political ideology of the modern world, but despite its pervasive influence, this is the first book-length treatment of liberal political thought from a Christian theological perspective. Song discusses the different aspects and interpretations of liberalism with reference to the critiques of three twentieth-century theologians: the American Protestant Reinhold Niebuhr on the liberal progressivist philosophy of history; the lesser-known Canadian GeorgeGrant on the threat of technology to fundamental liberal values, as articulated in the recent work of John Rawls; and the French Thomist Jacques Maritain on the defence of political pluralism. Further to this, Song explores the implications of this political theology for the issues in fundamentalconstitutional theory raised by a bill of rights and judicial review of legislation, and concludes with an account of the critical but supportive stance of liberalism Christian theology should take.

Author : Jean Réville
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1903
Category : Liberalism (Religion)
ISBN : HARVARD:AH52RT

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Liberal Christianity by Jean Réville Pdf

Author : John Allan Knight
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780199969388

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Liberalism Versus Postliberalism by John Allan Knight Pdf

The book provides an original analysis of the central philosophical differences between liberal and postliberal theology. Knight argues that important developments in philosophy of language reveal serious problems with the central methodological commitments of liberalism and postliberalism and suggest ways in which the divide can be bridged.