The Theological Origins of Liberalism
- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 2016
Summary
This eye-opening book offers a critical survey of the true origins of liberalism. It challenges the widely held belief among social scientists that liberalism was developed in opposition to Christianity. Beginning with the Protestant Reformation, it illustrates how Christian thinkers reinterpreted Christianity and used a set of indemonstrable biblical presuppositions from their reinterpretations to develop the first liberal ideas, starting a process that culminates in the birth of the first liberal political theory in the writings of a devout Christian philosopher, John Locke. It explains how the Protestant Reformation, covenant theology, anti-trinitarianism and medieval Christian natural law theories formed the foundations of liberalism. Thus, the central claim of this book is that liberalism is better understood as a radical reinterpretation of Christianity that emerged in the post-Reformation and early modern period. As a logical consequence of revealing the hitherto generally neglected roots of liberalism, it eventually proposes that a legally pluralist liberal political theory is the best way to maintain human dignity and peace in multi-religious societies of today’s globalized world.
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Bibliographic data
- Copyright year
- 2016
- ISBN-Print
- 978-1-4985-2740-8
- ISBN-Online
- 978-1-4985-2741-5
- Publisher
- Lexington, Lanham
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 235
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Table of Contents No access
- Foreword No access
- Acknowledgments No access
- Introduction No access
- Chapter One: The Relationship between Philosophy and Theology No access Pages 1 - 6
- Chapter Two: The Protestant Foundations in Liberalism No access Pages 7 - 34
- Chapter Three: Covenant Theology No access Pages 35 - 82
- Chapter Four: Grounding Liberalism on Christian Theology No access Pages 83 - 128
- Chapter Five: Theological Foundations of Liberalism in the Tradition of Natural Law and Natural Rights No access Pages 129 - 184
- Chapter Six: Historical Foundations of the Contradictions in Natural Rights Liberalism and Legal Pluralism as the Way Forward No access Pages 185 - 206
- Conclusion No access Pages 207 - 208
- Bibliography No access Pages 209 - 218
- Index No access Pages 219 - 234
- About the Author No access Pages 235 - 235





