Democratic Authority and the Separation of Church and State

Robert Audi is an internationally distinguished contributor to ethics, theory of knowledge, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of action. He has published numerous books and papers in all these fields and lectures widely in these areas and, more recently, in business ethics. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association and the subject of a critical volume containing thirteen critical essays and his responses.

• Preface and Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; 1. The Autonomy of Ethics and the Moral Authority of Religion ; I. The Autonomy of Ethics ; II. Moral Knowledge: General and Particular ; III. Religion, Theology, and Ethics ; IV. Theoethical Equilibrium: The Integration of Religion and Ethics ; V. Divine Command Ethics and Secular Morality ; 2. The Liberty of Citizens and the Responsibilities of Government ; I. The Separation of Church and State and the Limits of Democratic Authority ; II. The Liberty Principle and the Scope of Religious Freedom ; III. The Equality Principle and the Case Against Establishment ; IV. The Neutrality Principle: Accommodationist Secularity ; V. Religious Neutrality, Valuational Neutrality, and Public Policy ; 3. The Secular State and the Religious Citizen ; I. Freedom of Expression in the Advocacy of Laws and Public Policies ; II. Major Principles Governing the Advocacy of Laws and Public Policies ; III. The Charge of Exclusivism toward Religious Reasons ; IV. Natural Reason, Secularity, and Religious Convictions ; V. Religious Reasons, Political Decision, and Toleration ; VI. Privatization Versus Activism: The Place of Religious Considerations in Public Political Discourse ; 4. Democratic Tolerance and Religious Obligation in a Globalized World ; I. The Nature of Tolerance ; II. Is Tolerance a Virtue? ; III. Toleration and Forgiveness ; IV. The Normative Standards for Democratic Toleration ; V. Religion in the Workplace as a Test Case for a Theory of Toleration ; VI, Cosmopolitanism as a Framework for Tolerance ; VII. Civic Virtue and Democratic Participation ; VIII. International Implications of the Framework ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Index

The book summarizes, in 155 small pages of text, arguments [Audi] has been developing for more than 20 years. It is engagingly written and easy to read, with the analytic clarity that is Audi's great strength This is an important book, because it is the latest statement of a widely held position by one of the leading writers in the field.