A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Wolterstorff on religion, liberty, and democracy

The other day I was browsing my iTunes library and came across this talk by Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff on religious grounds for political liberty and democracy that I had apparently downloaded and then promptly forgot about. So I finally listened to it and it’s quite good. One of the points that Wolterstorff makes which, I think, bears repeating, is that “neo-traditionalist” critiques of liberalism (he specifically calls out MacIntyre, Hauerwas and Milbank) often seem to be aiming at a certain theory of liberalism (e.g. Rawls’) and not life as it is actually lived in liberal democratic socieities. Wolterstorff argues that they consequently miss the mark a lot of the time and that a justification for liberal democracy can be given that isn’t committed to a theory like Rawls’.

It’s a bit long, but also free.

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5 responses to “Wolterstorff on religion, liberty, and democracy”

  1. David

    I should probably listen to it first…but what exactly is so positive about the way life is lived in liberal-democratic societies? Sex without responsibilty, abortions, lives ruled by consumer capitalism, a steady erosion of the distinctively Christian. It’s all too easy to grow accustomed to life in such a society, but are we Christians not all too lukewarm most of the time? Ready to be spat out.

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  2. Lee

    David, you’re no doubt right that Christians in liberal democratic societies need to cultivate a more robust identity, but don’t you think your description about life lived in those societies is a wee bit partial and tendentious? Are most of the people you know having meaningless sex, serial abortions, etc.? Are they consumerist drones?

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  3. David

    Well maybe it was a slightly negative portrayal. But it is shocking just how widespread these tendencies are, especially among younger people: the sad fact is that one night stands followed by trips to the doctor for the ‘morning after pill’ are actually more common than many of us would like to believe.

    They don’t need to be ‘serial abortionists’ in any case, one is bad enough.

    And I think the extent to which all of us happily fall in line with consumer society is easy to misjudge. We ALL do it, all the time. Perhaps we’re not drones, but we generally our good members of our capitalist societies. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, but there is a clear danger of forgetting what is essential to our identity as Christians.

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  4. Eric Lee

    The download link above doesn’t seem to be active anymore. However, I found that the download link on this page works:

    http://www.veritas.org/media/talks/153

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  5. Lee

    Ah, thanks Eric! I actually couldn’t remember where I’d downloaded it from.

    I will also say that I think Wolterstorff does conflate a bit the concerns of the folks he calls the neo-traditionalists and “conservative” Christians in the US in general. While there may be some overlap (e.g. disatisfaction with the results of American political democracy), I think there are some very important differences.

    Of course, folks interested in this stuff should also check out Hauerwas’ article on McIntrye in this month’s First Things (not online yet). Hauerwas makes some points about why American conservatives shouldn’t consider McIntyre one of their own.

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