For God's Sake: reflections on the role of religion in politics

Tony Coady

Abstract: Theorists and ordinary people are very concerned today with the role that religion plays, might play or should play in the public world of liberal-democratic politics. Some worry that there is an inherent tendency for religion to provoke instability, conflict, even violence. Others complain of unfairness if religion, or some specific religion, is given a positive place in the political order. Another source is the view that any role for religion in the public sphere must be incompatible with the “secular” nature of the modern democratic state. Others think there is a limited role for religion in liberal democratic politics in that religious people and institutions must be restricted in the sort of reasons they can produce in the public arena or special parts of it. A related concern is the worry that the sort of personal autonomy required by liberal democracy is rejected by (all?many?some?) religions. This talk will address a number of these concerns, and will argue that some of the problems are not what they seem while some solutions to other problems are misguided. (Some reference will be made to the rather different proposals of Robert Audi and John Rawls.)

Venue: Linkway Meeting Room on the 4th floor of the John Medley building (http://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/191 )