Religious Convictions and Political Choice

by Greenawalt, Kent

• ISBN13: 9780195067798
• ISBN10: 0195067797
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-05-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

How far may Americans properly rely on their religious beliefs when they make and defend political decisions? For example, are ordinary citizens or legislators doing something wrong when they consciously allow their decisions respecting abortion laws to be determined by their religious views? Despite its intense contemporary relevance, the full dimensions of this issue have until now not been thoroughly examined. Religious Convictions and Political Choice represents the first attempt to fill this gap. Beginning with an account of the basic premises of our liberal democracy, Greenawalt moves to a comparison between rational secular grounds of decision and grounds based on religious convictions. He discusses particular issues such as animal rights and abortion, showing how religious convictions can bear on an individual's decisions about them, and inquires whether reliance on such convictions is compatible with liberal democratic premises. In conclusion, he argues that citizens cannot be expected to rely exclusively on rational, secular grounds.

Author Biography

Kent Greenawalt, University Professor at Columbia University, has been Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia University Law School

Table of Contents

Liberal Democracy and Publicly Accessible Reasons
The Aim and Scope of the Inquiry	p. 3
Premises of Liberal Democracy and the Place of Religion	p. 14
The Relevance of Religious Convictions for Political Choice	p. 30
Publicly Accessible Grounds of Decision and Religious Convictions	p. 49
Political Choices and Religious Convictions
Inappropriate Grounds of Restriction: Consenting Sexual Acts as Sins	p. 87
Borderlines of Status I: Animal Rights and Environmental Policy	p. 98
Borderlines of Status II: Abortion	p. 120
Borderlines of Status III: Religious Convictions and the Limits of Publicly Accessible Reasons	p. 144
Moral Standards, Evaluative Comparisons, and Facts: Welfare Assistance and Other Issues	p. 173
Church-State Problems	p. 196
Religious Bases That Conflict with Common Forms of Reasoning	p. 203
Dialogue, Official Action, and Constitutionality
Appropriate Political Discourse in a Liberal Society	p. 215
Religious Convictions and Official Action	p. 231
The Boundaries of Unconstitutionality	p. 244
Index	p. 261
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