an online journal of religion and politics
In the works of Rawls, religion, as a concept is largely conceptualized as mainstream Western religion. This includes both Protestant and Catholic strands of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In particular, I think that Rawls primarily has mainline Protestantism, the faith of his youth, in mind when he thinks of people of faith accepting an overlapping […]
“Principles lose their grip in times of fear.” — Marta Nussbaum (176) In Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America’s Tradition of Religious Equality, Martha Nussbaum takes a historical look religious liberty and religious equality through the lens of philosophical political liberalism. I will explore her conceptualization of political liberalism later. For now, I will […]
The fact of reasonable pluralism makes the unreasonable very nervous. Sometimes it makes them irrational and rude. See the video below: When religious people act like Operation Save America does in the video above, they are being unreasonable. They are demanding that the institutions of the nation-state only acknowledge and advocate their narrow religious worldview. […]
A quick video introduction to the dangers of wealth inequality: http://t.co/BVS6YD0D4W — Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 8, 2014 Check out the above video. I like Ezra Klein’s distinction between income inequality and wealth inequality. It is easy to overly simplify such matters. The super wealthy are not merely doctors and lawyers who went to school […]
I have long argued for socialism as an attitude, rather than socialism as a program. The late political philosopher G.A. Cohen is one of the most important socialist philosophical voices of the last 30 years. While Cohen wrote a grand treatise on Marx’s theory of history, he also engaged and criticized the libertarianism of Robert […]
I have not seen The Book of Mormon: The Musical. To be honest, I have not seen any musicals, in quite sometime, that are not at a local high school or community college. Often while wondering about musicals about sacred texts, I have wondered a few times about the possibilities of a musical version of […]
While it is often said that there are “no atheists in foxholes,” the experience of war can be a destroyer of faith. Rawls wrote that he was raised in a “conventionally religious” home. He finished his undergraduate studies and entered the military as a “believing orthodox Episcopalian Christian.” He had planned on going into the […]
John Rawls is my hero, but I never met him. So, I love hearing personal experiences like that of Thomas Pogge. And to think…I have been accused of hero worship. 🙂 Source: The Carnegie Council’s Ethics Matters Series. I tend to side more with Pogge on the idea of global justice than I do Rawls. […]
Authors note: The following is the second in my Mormon Rawls Project Series. It is also the expansion of my first ever post here at FPR. When Rawls develops the concept which he labels “justice as fairness.” This does not mean that a just society is one which is fair, but instead that principles of […]
John Rawls is a prominent 20th century philosopher. While his work is well respected, it is also a great source of controversy. Much of this controversy is rooted in the fact that his work has forced those in the areas of moral and political philosophy to pay attention. I was first introduced to Rawls my […]
It is often noted that the late American political philosopher John Rawls had a great admiration for President Abraham Lincoln. While people often express admiration for Lincoln, there are many theoretical similarities between the thought and actions of Lincoln and the grand political philosophy of Rawls. For the purposes of this essay I would like […]
As a political philosopher, I often feel lost in the deeper and more detailed discussions about scripture, doctrine, and the ancient world. However, the pre-existence, particularly the concept of a council in heaven is of direct interest to me and my own political theory. Let me explain:
