1st Edition
Religion in Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life Free and Equal
Religion in Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life advances a theory to deal with the challenges connected to the liberal democratic ideal that all people are free to codetermine the future of their society and equally entitled to their religion and beliefs, given the historical bias towards Christianity in politics and culture within many European societies.
Religious diversity and social and political participation are in fact fiercely contested issues. Critical scholars from philosophy and cultural theory contest that liberal political theories of freedom of religion can adequately deal with issues connected to an increasingly diversified and secularized religious field in historically Christian societies. Consequently, they claim that politics based on such theories cannot deliver on the promise to ensure conditions that allow all members of society equal religious freedom and political participation. By outlining historical developments, and by closely examining case studies of recent controversies about religious diversity in Germany and the Netherlands, this book identifies shortcomings of the current predominant liberal account of freedom of religion or belief. Based on this analysis, the author proposes a more complex theory of liberal democracy as form of life, with religion and religious freedom as components of it. This takes into account that informal norms, social structures, and predominant notions of belonging can function as powerful obstacles to freedom and equality, even if formal legal and political institutions prohibit discrimination based on religion. Construing liberal democracy as a ‘form of life’, that is as a set of social practices, attitudes, and their institutional manifestations and material expressions, shifts the focus of critical analysis from the law to informal structures and components. This provides an understanding of the dynamics of (culturalized) religion in society, which has often been missing in political philosophical theories. The theory proposed in this book provides normative criteria for building liberal democracies that are tolerant with respect to religious differences and solidaric in terms of ensuring conditions that allow all members of society to codetermine, as equals, the future of society, irrespective of their religion or beliefs.
This book will appeal to scholars of political theory, social and political philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology.
Acknowledgments
Part I
1. Religious Diversity in Liberal Democratic Societies
2. Self-Determination and the Predominant Liberal Account of Religious Freedom
Self-determination
Freedom of religion or belief: The predominant liberal account
Challenges to the predominant liberal account
The cultural nationalist challenge
The critical religion challenge
Part II
Introduction to Part II
Historical developments of policies of religion in Germany
Historical developments of policies of religion in the Netherlands
4. Recent Developments of the Religious Field
Secularisation, unchurching, and the culturalization and heritagisation of religion
Pluralisation of the religious field
New forms of religiosity and unaffiliated spirituality
Judaism and Jewish communities
Islam
5. Systematic Reflections on Past and Present Policies of Religion in Germany and the Netherlands
Part III
6. Temporal Religious Forms: Holidays
The social and political significance of temporal religious forms
Good Friday as a silent public holiday in Germany
An Islamic public holiday in Germany?
Philosophical reflections
7. Material Religious Forms: Crosses, a Crescent, and Anti-Jewish Sculptures
The social and political significance of material religious forms
Crosses and a crescent
Anti-Jewish sculptures on church facades
Philosophical reflections
8. Bodily Practices—(Not) Shaking Hands with People of the Opposite Sex
The handshake and Islamic modesty regulations
Arguments for shaking hands with men and women
Muslims dealing with the handshake-issue in everyday life
Philosophical reflections
9. Pictures and Norms Concerning Acts of Expression
Offence and moral injury
Damaged civic status and anti-religious racism
Philosophical reflections
Part IV
10. Taking Stock; The Liberal Account of Freedom of Religion or Belief and Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life
11. Religion and Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Christoph Baumgartner is Associate Professor of Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where he is also currently the Director of the Research Institute for Philosophy and Religious Studies.