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Introduction: Martin Marty's Religion and Republic
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13413 |
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BOOK WORLD
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9 / 1987 |
536 Words |
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The question of the relationship of religion to the American Republic is as old as the Republic itself. America was founded by people in search of religious freedom. The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were conscious of the centrality of this issue. Thus, as we celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution, we consider Martin Marty's Religion and Republic: The American Circumstance, which reflects on religion and republic from the early history of America to modern times.
As Marty points out, religion, dismissed for a number of years as one of the quieter and safer dimensions of national existence, has suddenly reappeared as a dynamic factor in American political and social life. Religion is bound up in many decisive conflicts: Typical of these are the struggle for civil rights and the debate over abortion.
But the question itself goes deeper. Today it is argued by Richard John Neuhaus and others that the American experiment is endangered by the systematic attempt to distance public life from the religious convictions and values of the American people. This is a traditional American argument; Thomas Jefferson, for example, worried how the liberties of the nation would be secure if removed from the "conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gift of God."
Marty stresses other aspects of the American situation. He sees a present-day America in which religious and, more frequently, racial or ethnic groups have challenged the need for national consensus; these groups have often pressed private interests, neglecting those that promote social morale. He wonders if concern over national survival will result in a strong, but oppressive, majority culture replacing the republican order. George Weigel and Richard Wentz, in their commentaries on Religion and Republic, are more hopeful that solutions to radical plurality can be found within a republican framework.
Weigel believes that a public philosophy can be articulated that will be consonant with fundamental religious convictions but expressed in a way that speaks to believers and unbelievers alike. He suggests that the new ecumenical axis that runs through the Roman Catholic, evangelical, and Lutheran communities can bring these groups into a fruitful dialogue - one that will lead beyond the semi-establishment of any majority culture to a true pluralism. Achieving true pluralism in the form of ongoing respectful disagreement is for Weigel the never-ending democratic task.
Wentz singles out religiousness as the element that binds people together. Religiousness, as Wentz defines it, is a part of every religion and exists outside of formal religion. He suggests that without the transcendent motivation expressed in religiousness, there is no freedom from self-interest. He believes that the American Republic is something new: It is beyond self-interested nationalism because of its commitment to cherish and respect the religiousness of people everywhere. Through pursuing this commitment, we can fulfill the dream of a Republic of free and equal citizenry united by our religiousness.
Finally Richard Quebedeaux charts the rise of Martin Marty to his prominence as the best-known scholarly interpreter of the American religious scene today.
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