As my readers know, this column frequently has a political orientation. Some people object a religious site should not have political content. But historically spirituality has never been purely private except when viewed from a secular perspective that relegates it to the purely subjective, like preferring chocolate ice cream over vanilla. Interestingly, this secular outlook imports powerful monotheistic assumptions under the surface.
However to say that religion has unavoidable political implications is not to make the next jump and say that religion leads to One Right Way politically. This totalitarian conclusion has roots in religions dominating societies and also claiming there is only One Right Way. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are tragic examples. By contrast, religions emphasizing sacred immanence, that divinity is within the world wherever else it might be, generally recognize many valid spiritual paths, and more easily live at peace with a diverse political landscape.
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We have come almost full circle about Liberalism over the past couple hundred years. Liberal started out as someone favoring Libe -
Greybeard- You will never understand this or the following columns if you think of them treating liberalism and conservatism as a -
So much has changed politically, even since the 1970s, that the U.S. mass media's notions of 'liberal' and 'conservative' don't ev
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I will cover this issue never fear. But before it can be really understood I think we need to understand where liberalism and cons
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Gus, this was a great historical article. Thank you. It seems to me, though, that you have not yet covered how they have evolved
