Reason, Revelation, and the Civic Order: Political Philosophy and the Claims of Faith - Hardcover

"This splendid collection is a valuable contribution to the fields of political science and philosophy." --Vincent Phillip Mu oz, University of Notre Dame "Religion is typically regarded by contemporary political philosophers as a problem. It's a problem for the state, since religion threatens oppression and violence; and it's a problem for political theorists themselves, since religion is held to be irrational and its intrusion into political thought would corrupt the pure rationality of acceptable political theory. The authors of this collection, while agreeing that religion can be a problem, argue persuasively that it is also a resource, both for our life together and for our theorizing, a resource that we neglect at our peril. It's a bold and courageous book, contesting the pieties of our present day. " --Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? When it comes to politics, a great deal, as the superb set of essays Holloway and DeHart have gathered show so well. In these pages the political is nourished by the theological, something we sorely need today." --R. R. Reno, Editor, First Things

In this edited volume, Carson Holloway and Paul R. DeHart bring together a series of essays that examine the relationship between political philosophy and faith. Even if sympathetic to the aims of religion, most philosophers exclude the claims of religion from political philosophy itself. For John Rawls, for example, a particular theological viewpoint has no force over other competing religious viewpoints. And, as such, revelation is perceived as a potential threat to individual freedom. For a philosopher like Strauss, religious belief might be necessary to a stable society, but religion belongs to the domain of political theology, rather than as a core part of political philosophy. Holloway and Dehart's volume also investigates the continued intellectual and political vitality of revelation as it is understood by its own adherents. While philosophers might exclude religion, for these figures, religion is fundamental to their understanding of the political. As such, their views complicate the relationships between philosophy and faith.