Theism, Law, and Politics

In this paper, Paul J. Weithman considers the relationship between religion and politics. He is a member of several philosophical associations in the U.S., and winner of book of the year award of the North American association of social philosophy for his book entitled Religion and Citizen Duties, in 2002. He declares that along with the emerging of Protestantism, European society, which had been shaped based on the religion, was disunited and religious pluralism challenged religion deeply. In this respect, Weithman first considers the origin of liberalism, its types and most important contemporary theory, i.e., Rawl's liberalism. Then, he looks at the views of the critics such as Pope John Paul II, Taylor, MacIntyre, and Hollenbach, who have criticized liberalism from either religious or philosophical perspectives. According to Weithman, domination of theism and its great influence upon the present policies has encounteredthe political philosophers to serious challenges, with which they have to deal.