Many religious people are alarmed about features of the current age--violence in the media, a pervasive hedonism, a marginalization of religion, and widespread abortion. These concerns influence politics, but just as there should be a separation between church and state, so should there be a balance between religious commitments and secular arguments calling for social reforms. Robert Audi offers a principle of secular rationale, which does not exclude religious grounds for action but which rules out restricting freedom except on grounds that any rational citizen would accept. This book describes the essential commitments of free democracy, explains how religious and secular moral considerations can be integrated to facilitate cooperation in a world of religious pluralism, and proposes ideals of civic virtue that express the mutual respect on which democracy depends.

Many religious people are alarmed about features of the current age - violence in the media, a pervasive hedonism, a marginalization of religion, and widespread abortion. These concerns influence politics, but just as there should be a separation between church and state, so should there be a balance between religious commitments and secular arguments calling for social reforms. Robert Audi offers a principle of secular rationale, which does not exclude religious grounds for action but which rules out restricting freedom except on grounds that any rational citizen would accept.

An examination of the relations between religion and politics in a modern, secular society.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-251) and index.

Part I. The Foundations of Democracy and the Separation of Church and State: 1. The plurality of paths to Liberal democracy; 2. The separation of church and State; 3. Church-State separation and the justification of Governmental power; Part II. The Ethics of Citizenship and the Balance of Religious and Political Arguments: 4. Religious convictions and secular reasons; 5. Religion and ethics: toward integration; Part III. Civic Virtue and Political Activism in a Religiously Pluralistic Democracy: 6. Civic virtue; 7. Religious conviction and political activism; 8. Conclusion: ethics, reason, and democracy.