BIBFRAME Work

Title

Religion in liberal democracy as a form of life

Type

  • Monograph
  • Text

Contribution

Subject

Language

Classification

  • DDC: 322/.1094 (Assigner: dlc)
  • LCC: BL65.P7 B389 2025 (Assigner: dlc) (Status: uba)

Content

Supplementary content

Summary

"Religion in Liberal Democracy as a Form of Life advances a theory to deal with the challenges connected to the liberal democratic ideal that all people are free to codetermine the future of their society and equally entitled to their religion and beliefs, given the historical bias towards Christianity in politics and culture within many European societies. Religious diversity and social and political participation are in fact fiercely contested issues. Critical scholars from philosophy and cultural theory contest that liberal political theories of freedom of religion can adequately deal with issues connected to an increasingly diversified and secularized religious field in historically Christian societies. Consequently, they claim that politics based on such theories cannot deliver on the promise to ensure conditions that allow all members of society equal religious freedom and political participation. By outlining historical developments, and by closely examining case studies of recent controversies about religious diversity in Germany and the Netherlands, this book identifies shortcomings of the current predominant liberal account of freedom of religion or belief. Based on this analysis, the author proposes a more complex theory of liberal democracy as form of life, with religion and religious freedom as components of it. This takes into account that informal norms, social structures, and predominant notions of belonging can function as powerful obstacles to freedom and equality, even if formal legal and political institutions prohibit discrimination based on religion. Construing liberal democracy as a 'form of life', that is as a set of social practices, attitudes, and their institutional manifestations and material expressions, shifts the focus of critical analysis from the law to informal structures and components. This provides an understanding of the dynamics of (culturalized) religion in society, which has often been missing in political philosophical theories. The theory proposed in this book provides normative criteria for building liberal democracies that are tolerant with respect to religious differences and solidaric in terms of ensuring conditions that allow all members of society to codetermine, as equals, the future of society, irrespective of their religion or beliefs. This book will appeal to scholars of political theory, social and political philosophy, religious studies, sociology, and anthropology"-- Provided by publisher.

Authorized Access Point

Baumgartner, Christoph. Religion in liberal democracy as a form of life

Geographic Coverage

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11T20:11:55.494262+00:00
  • Agent: cbc
  • Status: c
  • Derived from: 23922131

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11
  • Cataloger id: Unknown
  • Description level: http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe-2-6-0/
  • Description language: eng
  • Description authentication: pcc

Alternative Formats

Blue Core Actions

  • Load to Marva Marva loads Instances, not Works. Open one of this Work's Instances and load that into Marva instead.
  • Load to Sinopia
  • Export to Catalog Only Instances can be exported. Open one of this Work's Instances and export that instead.