Religion and the Demise of Liberal Rationalism: The Foundational Crisis of the Separation of Church and State - Hardcover

J. Judd Owen is an assistant professor of political science at Emory University.

At the same time that dissatisfaction with the shape of church/state relations is on the rise, liberalism is witnessing ever-spreading postmodern skepticism regarding the theoretical soundness of its core principles. What doe these two tends have to do with each other? Potentially a great deal, according to J. Judd Owen, who contends that the liberal posture to religion cannot be divorced from, but rather lies at the deepest level of, the serious questions confronting liberalism's original rationalist basis.

Through a careful critique of Richard Rorty, John Rawls, and Stanely Fish, Owen argues that today's "post-rational" liberalisms can only evade or obscure, but cannot resolve, liberalism's perennial difficult with religion. Yet by politically fostering an indifference to question of religious truth, liberal rationalsim itself shares balme for its present crisis. Antifoundationalism is thus not a radical alternative to liberal rationalism, but its unintended byproduct.

Presenting an original map of the current landscape of political thought, Owen's provocative book cuts across politcal science, philosophy, religion, and constitutional theory.