Political liberalism and religious claims: Four blind spots. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stoeckl, Kristina
• Is Part Of: Philosophy & social criticism. Volume 43:Number 1(2017)
• Page Start: 34
• Page End: 50
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: Jürgen Habermas -- morality politics -- political liberalism -- religion -- transnational politics; Philosophy -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; 300.1
• DOI: 10.1177/0191453716651665
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0191-4537

Abstract

This article gives an overview of 4 important lacunae in political liberalism and identifies, in a preliminary fashion, some trends in the literature that can come in for support in filling these blind spots, which prevent political liberalism from a correct assessment of the diverse nature of religious claims. Political liberalism operates with implicit assumptions about religious actors being either 'liberal' or 'fundamentalist' and ignores a third, in-between group, namely traditionalist religious actors and their claims. After having explained what makes traditionalist religious actors different from liberal and fundamentalist religious actors, the author develops 4 areas in which political liberalism should be pushed further theoretically in order to correctly theorize the challenge which traditional religious actors pose to liberal democracy. These 4 areas (blind spots) are: (1) the context of translation; (2) the politics of exemptions; (3) the multivocality of theology; and (4) the transnational nature of norm-contestation.