NDLI: When God Commands Disobedience: Political Liberalism and Unreasonable Religions

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When God Commands Disobedience: Political Liberalism and Unreasonable Religions

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Clayton, Matthew Stevens, David
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Some religiously devout individuals believe divine command can override an obligation to obey the law where the two are in conflict. At the extreme, some individuals believe that acts of violence that seek to change or punish a political community, or to prevent others from violating what they take to be God’s law, are morally justified. In the face of this apparent clash between religious and political commitments it might seem that modern versions of political morality—such as John Rawls’s political liberalism—that refuse to take a stance on controversial religious matters, or eschew appeal to perfectionist doctrines, are beset by a particularly acute version of this problem of religious disobedience. Whilst political liberalism follows this path so as to generate wide and stable support, it raises the question of how political liberals should respond to religiously motivated non-compliance with the norms of that liberal conception of justice. This article evaluates what resources are available to political liberalism to respond to this challenge. It examines whether anti-perfectionism can be sustained in the face of those whose religious beliefs are in conflict with the law. We argue that, under certain circumstances, political liberalism requires direct engagement with the religious views of the unreasonable, including offering religious arguments to show that their particular interpretation of their faith is mistaken. This view takes political liberalism away from its usual ambitions, but it is a position that is both anticipated by Rawls and consistent with his view. It does, however, require that political liberals give up the claim that the view is a wholly non-sectarian, purely political view, and accept that, under certain circumstances it is a partially comprehensive version of liberal theory.
Starting Page	65
Ending Page	84
Page Count	20
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13564765
Journal	Res Publica
Volume Number	20
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15728692
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2013-07-17
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Political liberalism Religion Disobedience Rawls Reasonableness Liberal neutrality Philosophy of Law Philosophy of Religion Political Philosophy Ethics Philosophy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Law

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