Does Faith Belong in Politics? A Debate

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 argues that a pluralistic democracy requires a “strong integrationist” commitment from all citizens, a commitment that poses strong challenges to the religiously devout and to the cohesion of religious communities. Such integrationist commitments, according to Coetsee, include being active in non-religious civic associations and advancing non-religious reasons for laws that those outside their faith will accept. The two authors then take turns responding to each other.