Religion among we the people : conversations on democracy and the divine good / Franklin I. Gamwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gamwell, Franklin I., author.

Standardized Title:

Essays. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Religion.

United States.

Religion.

Democracy--Moral and ethical aspects.

Religion and politics--United States.

Religion and politics.

Physical Description:

xiv, 242 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2015]

Summary:

Franklin I. Gamwell holds that democracy with religious freedom is dependent on metaphysical theism. Democratic politics can be neutral to all religious convictions only if its constitution establishes a full and free discourse about the ultimate terms of justice and their application to decisions of the state, and the divine good is the true ground of justice. Notably, Gamwell's view challenges virtually all current accounts' of democracy with religious freedom. This uncommon position emerges through a series of essays in which Gamwell engages a variety of conversation partners, including Thomas Jefferson, David Strauss, Abraham Lincoln, Jürgen Habermas, Alfred North Whitehead, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Iris Murdoch. Discussions of Jefferson, Lincoln, and the US Constitution illustrate the promise of neoclassical metaphysics as a context for interpreting US history. Gamwell then defends his metaphysics against both modern refusals of metaphysics and accounts of ultimate reality offered by Niebuhr and Murdoch. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Consent to Religious Freedom: The Legacy of Thomas Jefferson 1

The Present Question 1

Jefferson's Answers 5

Refining the Question 15

Reason's Tribunal 20

Jefferson's Legacy 28

Chapter 2 On Constitutional Authority: A Conversation with David Strauss 31

The Living Constitution 31

Jefferson's Question; Hermeneutical and Normative 37

The Tradition of Popular Sovereignty 41

Advancing the Tradition 52

Chapter 3 Democracy and Nature's God: The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln 61

Lincoln's Political Sentiments 61

The Declaration's Laws of Nature 68

The Almighty's Purposes 76

The House Divided 80

Lincoln's Legacy 86

Chapter 4 On Religion in the Public Sphere: A Conversation with Jürgen Habermas 91

The Institutional Proviso 93

Habennas's Proposal: A Critique 100

Habermas and Rawls: The Basic Problem 105

The Better Solution 109

The Attachment to Democracy 115

Chapter 5 On the Humanitarian Ideal: The Promise of Neoclassical Metaphysics 121

Kantian and Post-Enlightenment Challenges 124

Metaphysics and Human Purpose 132

Making the Humanitarian Ideal Explicit 143

Chapter 6 Reinhold Niebuhr's Theistic Ethic: The Law of Love 147

Niebuhr's Systematic Project 147

Niebuhr's Ethic: Harmony and Sacrificial Love 151

Niebuhr's Ethic: A Critique 161

Niebuhr's Intentions Revisited 172

Chapter 7 On the Loss of Theism: A Conversation with Iris Murdoch 179

Emphatic Moral Realism 179

Good without God 183

The Loss of Worth 185

The Necessity of God 189.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438458076

143845807X

OCLC:

908715701