Does Faith Belong in Politics?

Can religious citizens live cooperatively and justly with others in a pluralistic polity? Can religious arguments play a role within healthy democratic deliberation?In this volume, Paul Billingham and Marilie Coetsee debate these timely issues, examining what responsible democratic citizenship requires of the religiously committed. Billingham argues that a religious citizen doesn’t need to check or undermine her deepest beliefs in order to engage in the political life of a pluralistic society, and rebuts familiar worries about religious political arguments being dogmatic, domineering, and incomprehensible and unpersuasive to non-believers. Furthermore, he draws on real-life examples to argue that religious contributions to democratic deliberation can be beneficial, ultimately strengthening discourse, pluralism, and democracy. Coetsee is much more skeptical. She agrees that religion can contribute positively to politics in principle, but points out that in practice it may easily aggravate polarization and undermine healthy democratic discourse. She argues that to avoid these problems, believers must build relationships with those who don’t share their faith, advance reasons for laws that others canaccept, and be willing to question even their core beliefs.The two authors then take turns responding to each other.