Religion and Politics, Home and Abroad

Americans are among the most religious people in the wealthy, democratic West. Yet we are not only comfortable, but proud, of the independence of church and state. Are we bound to fumble in our foreign policy if we cannot understand why the politics of equality, liberty, toleration, and democracy fit so uneasily with the explicitly religious politics of the Middle East? Closer to home, evangelical Christians remain one of the most powerful forces in American politics, and perhaps a dominant force in the Republican Party. Will they bring down the "big tent" if the GOP nominates a cosmopolitan pro-choice New Yorker or a Mormon? Is there, perhaps, a place for religious ideas on the American left?This month's Cato Unbound explores these questions and with a stellar lineup of deep thinkers about God and politics. Leading off this month, Columbia University's Mark Lilla, author of The Stillborn Religion, Politics, and the Modern West, offers a learned meditation on the trouble Americans have grasping the "political theology" of much of the world. Joining Lilla, we have the prolific Penn State professor of history and religion Philip Jenkins; Damon Linker, author of The Secular America Under Siege; and The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, author of recent The Conservative How We Lost It; How To Get It Back.