Faith, nationalism and the future of liberal democracy

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Why We Write -- One Facing Liberal Democracy's Challenge: Why We Highlight the Role of Religious Identity in Populist Nationalist Movements -- Two How to Understand the Populism of Europe -- Three The Nationalist Assault on Liberal Democracy in the United States -- Four A Catholic Response to the Errors of Catholic Nationalism -- Five The Post-Holocaust Protestant Church as the Defender of Pluralistic Democracy -- Six Each Human Being as an Image of God: A Jewish Response to Religious Nationalism -- Epilogue: Religious Leadership, Civil Discourse, and Democracy -- Notes -- Bibliography -- About the Authors -- Index.

"David Elcott, C. Colt Anderson, Tobias Cremer, and Volker Haarmann present a pragmatic and modernist exploration of how religion engages in the public square. Elcott and his co-authors are concerned about the ways religous identity is being used to foster the exclusion of individuals and communities from citizenship, political representation, and a role in determining public policy. They examine the ways religious identity is weaponized to fuel populist revolts against a political, social, and economic order that values democracy in a global and strikingly diverse world ... The authors explore what constitutes a constructive religious voice in the political arena, even in nurturing patriotism and democracy, and what undermines and threatens liberal democracies. To lay the groundwork for a religious response, the book offers chapters showing how Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism can nourish liberal democracy. The authors encourage people of faith to promote foundational support for the institutions and values of the democratic enterprise from within their own religious traditions and to stand against the hostility and cruelty that historically have resulted when religious zealotry and state power combine"--The publisher