New book on John Rawls's Political Liberalism

Rawls, Political Liberalism and Reasonable Faith

by Paul Weithman

Cambridge University Press, 2016

270 pages





Description

For over twenty years, Paul Weithman has explored the thought of John Rawls to ask how liberalism can secure the principled allegiance of those people whom Rawls called 'citizens of faith'. This volume brings together ten of his major essays (including one new unpublished essay), which reflect on the task and political character of political philosophy, the ways in which liberalism does and does not privatize religion, the role of liberal legitimacy in Rawls's theory, and the requirements of public reason. The essays reveal Rawls as a thinker deeply engaged with political and existential questions that trouble citizens of faith, and explore how - in firm opposition to political realism - he tries to show that the possibility of liberal democracy and the natural goodness of humanity are objects of reasonable faith. 

Contents [pdf] [preview]

Introduction

Part I. The Undergraduate Thesis

1. On John Rawls's A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith [pdf]

Part II. From A Theory of Justice to Political Liberalism

2. John Rawls and the Task of Political Philosophy [pdf]
3. Rawlsian Liberalism and the Privatization of Religion [preview]
4. Liberalism and the Political Character of Political Philosophy [pdf]
5. Legitimacy and the Project of Political Liberalism [pdf]

Part III. Public Reason and its Role

6. Citizenship and Public Reason
7. Inclusivism, Stability and Assurance
8. Convergence and Political Autonomy [pdf]

Part IV. Rawls, Realism and Reasonable Faith

9. Law of Peoples and Christian Realism
10. Does Justice as Fairness Have a Religious Aspect? [paper]

Paul Weithman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of  "Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship" (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and "Why Political Liberalism? On John Rawls's Political Turn" (Oxford University Press, 2010).