God, Religion and Civil Governance

by Titus Craig Steven

Overview

This volume, God, Religion, and Civil Governance, aims to confirm that liberty and autonomy are essential to contemporary Western democratic societies. However, so is religion. Religious freedom actually serves as the most basic liberty that protects our other freedoms and human rights, while serving the common good. Religious freedom, in this view,
cannot be reduced to the freedom to worship the God of the universe.
It also includes recognizing the moral structure of the universe and the moral principles that honor the basic dignity of each human person from conception to death. Although Christianity has influenced Western civilization's notion of God, religious freedom, its laws, and forms of governance, the effect of secularization and extreme views on the separation of church and state have created new challenges for Western civilization. Claims about certain individual rights and governmental prerogatives have been used to limit religious and other basic freedoms and rights. This volume addresses the major issues concerning God,
religion, and civil governance in a way that offers guidance for a civic culture that seeks both a sure sense of its roots and a level measure for governance supported by just law, human dignity, and virtuous character.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Craig Steven Titus is Associate Professor and Director of Integrative Studies at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (Arlington, VA) and is the author of
Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude: Aquinas in Dialogue with the Psychosocial
Sciences (CUA Press, 2006) and numerous articles and book chapters. He has edited
14 books.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780977310395
Publisher:	The Catholic University of America Press
Publication date:	10/28/2014
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Craig Steven Titus is at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, Va

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Craig Steven Titus 1

1 Freedom of Religion Roger Scruton 18

2 Religion and State: Some Main Issues and Sources John Finnis 35

3 The Eclipse of the Sense of God and Man Livio Melina 67

4 That "Intelligent Superintending Principle": The Author of the Rights That Were There before the Constitution and the Bill of Rights Hadley Arkes 84

5 On the Moral Purposes of Law and the State: First Principles and Contemporary Issues Robert P. George 109

6 "Rights" and Our Essential Nature Daniel N. Robinson 128

Contributors 145

Index of Names 149

Index of Subjects 151