Should Religion Play a Role in Politics?

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.
The Stone is featuring occasional posts by Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, that apply critical thinking to information and events that have appeared in the news.

As our electoral process has begun to accelerate, questions about religious affiliation and calls for candidates to sign pledges supporting religious stances are in the news.  Here are some reflections on the general question of the role of religion in our political life.

One view, attractive to many Americans, holds that religion has no place at all.  Roughly, the idea is that religion concerns the private sphere: what pertains to me as an individual or as a member of a voluntary community of like-minded individuals (e.g., a church).  Political life, by contrast, concerns the public sphere: what pertains to me as a member of a wider community (a city, state or nation) of individuals with diverse views on issues such as religion.  This distinction seems necessary once we realize the hatred and violence historically associated with religious disagreements.  Unless we simply agree to disagree about matters of such intense division, there is little hope of sustaining a civil society.

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Full article at opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

 

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