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The Theological Origins of Liberalism
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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
Edition
1/2016
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
Monograph
Table of contents
ChapterPages
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
