Product Description

Do religious arguments have a public role in the post-9/11 world? Can we hold democracy together despite fractures over moral issues? Are there moral limits on the struggle against terror? Asking how the citizens of modern democracy can reason with one another, this book carves out a controversial position between those who view religious voices as an anathema to democracy and those who believe democratic society is a moral wasteland because such voices are not heard.

Drawing inspiration from Whitman, Dewey, and Ellison, Jeffrey Stout sketches the proper role of religious discourse in a democracy. He discusses the fate of virtue, the legacy of racism, the moral issues implicated in the war on terrorism, and the objectivity of ethical norms. Against those who see no place for religious reasoning in the democratic arena, Stout champions a space for religious voices. But against increasingly vocal antiliberal thinkers, he argues that modern democracy can provide a moral vision and has made possible such moral achievements as civil rights precisely because it allows a multitude of claims to be heard.

Stout's distinctive pragmatism reconfigures the disputed area where religious thought, political theory, and philosophy meet. Charting a path beyond the current impasse between secular liberalism and the new traditionalism, Democracy and Tradition asks whether we have the moral strength to continue as a democratic people as it invigorates us to retrieve our democratic virtues from very real threats to their practice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141024 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
"Stout attempts to steer a pragmatic course between these two camps and to reframe the relationship between religion and democracy". -- B.G. Murchland, Choice

Confronts injustice with a passion born out of [Stout's] awareness that something . . . better is not only possible but already exists. -- Robin W. Lovin , The Christian Century

Offers many sophisticated and well-argued insights. . . . Its project--to reconcile democracy and religion--is both theoretically fascinating and politically urgent. -- Yaacov Ben-Shemesh , Social Theory and Practice

Review
[Stout's] vision of democracy is compelling, simultaneously inspiring and comforting. Stout speaks to us as citizens, asks us to read him as citizens, and encourages us to reflect on what sorts of citizens our theologies invite us to be.
(Lauren F. Winner Books & Culture )

Stout invites us into a vigorous local democracy in which kids play soccer and a diverse and dedicated group of neighbors team up to protect their community from the encroachment of a large, bureaucratic medical center. . . . Though Stout is fully aware that the social reality is often more bleak, he confronts injustice with a passion born out of his awareness that something much better is not only possible but already exists. If his underlying optimism about American democracy is right, it's hard to refuse his invitation to religious people to participate in it.
(Robin W. Lovin The Christian Century )

Stout's book offers many sophisticated and well-argued insights on liberal political philosophy, Christian theology, and the relations between them. It combines historical analysis with illuminating observations regarding current affairs. Its project--to reconcile democracy and religion--is both theoretically fascinating and politically urgent.
(Yaacov Ben-Shemesh Social Theory and Practice )

Stout anchors his argument on the question of what role religious premises should play in the reasoning citizens use when they make and defend political positions. His provocative answer is that citizens of a democracy have the right to freedom of thought and expression that includes whatever religious motivations they might have.
(Choice )

[A] book that is important by any reckoning. . . . [It] will significantly advance discussion of liberalism and democracy. . . . At its strongest, Stout's case refreshes with its view of democracy-not simply a 'notion' but a robust tradition that none should abandon.
(Craig R. Hovey Theology Today )

Appearing at a time when religion and politics 'run perpetually into one another' with great visibility, violence, and import, [this book] should become this generation's seminal work of political philosophy.
(Eugene McCarraher Cresset )

A spirited defense of democratic values and practices in disheartening times. This volume not only offers a philosophical analysis but also an exemplary instance of democratic discourse. . . . This is a wonderful book.
(Timothy A. Beach-Verhey Political Theory )

Democracy and Tradition establishes Jeffrey Stout as a major interlocutor in contemporary political philosophy. . . . With this book, Stout offers an imposing theoretical alternative that reintegrates traditional religious and moral discourse into the very essence of democracy. It could not be more timely, particularly as Western liberal democracy is being exported by force of armed invasion to traditional religious societies that view it with understandable traditionalist suspicions.
(Conrad G. Brunk Philosophy in Review )

[This is a] clear, fair, engaging, and wise book.
(Michael J. Kerlin Theological Studies )

Beyond the impressive shape and scope of the arguments that Stout lays before his audience, perhaps the most enduring quality of his work is its ethos of good will and how this ethos permeates his conversation about democracy. Democracy and Tradition is a timely contribution to our understanding of the tradition of democracy and the practices that are needed to sustain it.
(Todd C. Ream Scottish Journal of Theology )

Review
With a clarity that can only be gained through a charitable reading of those with whom he disagrees, Stout inaugurates a fresh conversation between advocates of democracy and those who hold substantive Christian convictions. In Democracy and Tradition, the Emersonian tradition is given new life, helping Americans envision what a vital politics contains.
(Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School )

Customer Reviews

The Tradition of Democracy
Stout eloquently argues that Democracy itself, which is considered the antithesis of tradition by many, constitutes a tradition. He argues that within the history of the democratic tradition, as articulated by people like Emerson, Whitman, Dewey, and Ellison, is a set of virtues and vices that correspond to a democratic conception of character. Among the virtues it extols are piety, hope, and charity. He then forges a way between Rawls and Rorty on one side and MacIntyre and Hauerwas on the other. He vigoursly attacks Hauerwas and the other "new traditionalists" whom he says isolate themselves from the broader conversation in favor of sectarian pursuits. Finally, he articulates a way forward with ethics in a time of pluralism. Religious voices can express contasting justifiably held beliefs in common forum. Each should express their beliefs, support them with reasons, and then engage in immanent criticism of those in oposition. Steeped in pragmatism, Stout argues that ethics can be truthful without defining truth. Further, this can be done without metaphysics. What we are left with is a system that allows for truth claims, pluralism, and public debate.

As a longtime reader of Hauerwas it is somewhat painful to give this book 5 stars, but it is well deserved. Although I still have reservations about the democratic project, Stout's book was insightful. Though I found his criticism of the new traditionalists a bit strong, it definately caused me to rethink some of my positions. In the end, if one is committed to democracy but finds ethical discourse challenging, this is the way to go.

Dense but very rewarding pragmatist argument for the American democratic tradition
Stout's closely-argued book argues in favor of a public sphere that includes the voices of religious people but resists efforts from Christian new traditionalists on one side and secularists on the other to reduce the conversation to a single foundation. His criticisms of MacIntyre and Hauerwas in the middle chapters are especially crucial, as those writers hold tremendous sway over certain mainline Protestants and Catholics. Stout successfully argues that it is best for Christianity to be involved in the democratic process.

I did find the final chapters (8-12) very dense and tough going. Stout warns about this in the introduction, but I still feel like he could have unpacked some of the denser sections a little bit. I am not a professional philosopher, but I'm not entirely unsophisticated, either. I still felt completely lost at a few points. In these chapters, it's also difficult at times to see the connection to the larger argument. In the conclusion, the author wraps up the threads of the three parts into a beautiful, powerful argument in the tradition of American pragmatism for an enriched democracy that draws the allegiance, participation, and criticism of a broad, diverse citizenry. Very highly recommended.