CFP: Religion and Democracy

Political polarization has grown dramatically in the US since the 1970s, and has been connected to democratic erosion here and in a variety of international cases. It has also been accompanied by a growing ‘God Gap’ between political parties: religious citizens increasingly identify with the Republican party while secular citizens increasingly identify with the Democratic party. Some political scientists now worry that the US is on track to develop a 'confessional' party system in which partisans organize around religious or secular identities (Campbell, Layman, and Green, Secular Surge, 2021). This God Gap plausibly exacerbates polarization and, in so doing, indirectly contributes to democratic erosion.

In light of growing political conflicts surrounding religion, this conference aims to enrich philosophical discussion on the relationship between religion and liberal democracy. We invite abstracts that advance traditional debates about the role of religious reasons in public justification and democratic deliberation, as well as those that explore new questions bearing on how secular and religious citizens should cooperate in a liberal regime and how religion may contribute positively or negatively to democratic society. 

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We invite abstracts of 700-1000 words that address topics including, but not limited to, the relationship of religion to:

- Public justification

- The accessibility of religious reasons

- Epistemic injustice

- Race, LGBTQ+ issues, sex and gender relations

- Applied issues pertaining to, e.g., abortion, education, exemptions

- Transformative liberalism

- Struggles for liberation and civil disobedience

- Civic virtues and vices (e.g., political courage, non-violence, love of enemy, patience, tolerance, intolerance, dogmatism, sectarianism)

- Recognition 

- Religious establishment and free exercise

- Illiberalism

We especially welcome proposals that

- bear on religious traditions not well-represented in the current literature in analytic political philosophy, e.g., Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism, indigenous religions, Islam, Confucianism, Orthodoxy.

- help facilitate better dialogue between liberal and conservative religious perspectives. 

- engage with theological perspectives more generally including, e.g., the natural law tradition, Catholic social teaching, Reformed and Baptist traditions, and liberation theology. We strongly encourage but do not require such papers to either be written in the sytle of, or to engage with, literature in analytic political philosophy.

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Applying: Please submit an abstract of 700-1000 words and a current CV to Marilie Coetsee at [email protected] by January 20, 2025. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review. Please indicate in your submission email if you will need expenses related to flights and/or lodging to be covered in order to be able to participate. 

Funding: We will be able to pay expenses for a select number of participants. Funding is supported by the Democracy Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. 

Logistics: The conference will be held on the campus of Notre Dame University. We will begin with dinner and the first paper on Thursday, May 22 and conclude at the end of the day on Saturday, May 24, 2025. Papers will have ~30 mins for presentation. 

Questions: May be submitted to Marilie Coetsee at [email protected].