Rethinking Liberal Political Thought

Engaging with the many questions surrounding the proper relationship between religion and politics in a liberal democratic state, this dissertation focuses on the contribution that can be made by rethinking the tradition of liberal political thought. I explore the political vision of John Locke, which I argue grounds the possibility of incorporating religious forms of reasoning into the public sphere of democratic discourse. Distinguishing my comprehensive interpretation of Lockean liberalism from the views of significant twentieth- and twenty-first-century thinkers--whom I describe as either Rawlsian liberals, new traditionalists, non-liberal democrats, or non-Lockean liberal democrats--I discuss three conditions that are present in Locke, which make possible a form of democratic political participation that promotes the use of religious reasons in civil discourse. First, through his mature position on religious toleration, Locke constructs a civic environment in which citizens have the liberty to hold a diversity of religious beliefs and to make these beliefs public in religious practice. Second, according to Locke's views on moral epistemology, religious belief that is grounded in revelation can be entitled to supplement practical reason in order to give individuals fuller and clearer knowledge of, and motivation for obedience to, the moral law. Because Locke views political philosophy as a subset of moral philosophy, I extend the argument to conclude that Locke creates a role for the use of religious beliefs in one's determination of political matters. Third, I contend that Locke views religious communities as serving an expressive, political function by mediating individuals' interests to the larger sphere of public discourse. In this way, religious communities can be described as vehicles for citizenship. This claim for the political role of religious institutions moves beyond a mere allowance of religious reasoning in the public sphere to a specification of concrete ways in which this participation is to occur.