Why Politics Needs Religion
The Place of Religious Arguments in the Public Square
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: IVP Academic (InterVarsity Press)
- Published: 2006
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Publisher's Description
Can relligion and politics mix? Many voices reply, "No way!"Yet in this provocative and timely book, Brendan Sweetman argues against this charge and the various sophisticated arguments that support it. As we witness the clash of religious and secular worldviews he claims that our pluralistic democratic society will be best served when the faith elements of secularism are acknowledged and the rational elements of religious arguments are allowed to inform the momentous debates taking place in the public square. In fact, Sweetman contends that "politics needs religion if it is to be truly democratic, concerned with fairness among worldviews, equality and a vigorous public discussion."
Endorsements (3)
“This is a unique book on a desperately important topic for our times. Every person's life is governed by a worldview, for good or ill, but very few people realize how this works or understand the vast influence their worldview exercises on how they see and think about events and people. Hence, they remain more or less at the mercy of their overall orientation in life--and those of others. This clear, thorough and forceful treatment of the indispensable contribution that religion and religion alone can make to public life helps us get past many of the confusions that now mar our legislatures, courts and other public arenas. Most of all, educators need to study it carefully and use it with their students.”
“It is commonly said today that public discourse is dangerously polarized. This important book shows how the polarization is not just over conflicting political and moral views. It is over how we define what counts as genuinely public discourse. The interaction of religion and politics is as inescapable as are disagreements about that interaction inevitable. This book brings to the discussion a rare mastery of diverse arguments combined with a generosity of spirit and penetrating insight that can help us engage our differences within the bond of civility.”
“Why Politics Needs Religion is a wonderfully practical and plain-spoken defense not only of the use of religious reasoning in public dialogue, but also of the legitimacy of seeing secular reasoning as no less 'religious.' It will serve as a welcome aid to those religious people who feel marginalized--even besieged--by the secularist boundaries built around much public debate in our day.”
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