Research On Religion » Church of England

Chris Soper on the Challenge of Religious Pluralism

tonygill — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 08:00:20 +0000

How do various democratic nations manage increasing religious pluralism around the world? Prof. Christopher Soper, a distinguished political scientist at Pepperdine University, answers this question and talks about the third edition of his book The Challenge of Pluralism, co-authored with Kevin den Dulk and the late Stephen Monsma. After Chris provides a few reflections on the scholarly influence of Prof. Monsma, we discuss how a third edition of this popular text suggested itself with a changing religious environment in many Western democracies, most notably the increase in Muslim populations in Europe. Prof. Soper notes that the impetus for the book back in 1997 was to answer three questions that remain more relevant than ever: 1) How much religiously-motived behavior that is contrary to societal welfare and norms can a democratic polity allow?; 2) To what extent should the state promote consensual religious beliefs in order to promote a shared set of values and virtues that are fundamental to limited democratic governance?; and 3) When religious groups and government agencies are active in the same fields of work, how can a society ensure that the state does not advantage one religious group (or secular belief system) over another? Chris then reviews the three models of church-state relations that he and his co-authors detail in the book: 1) the separationist model as exemplified by the United States and France; 2) the establishment model that includes England and Germany; and 3) the pluralist model in both its “pragmatic” (Australia) and “principled” variants (the Netherlands). He explains the dimensions of each model, noting that there is variation within each category. For example, while both the US and France are considered separationist, the historical trajectories of each country conditioned a more aggressive separationist position in France. For much of the second half of the interview, we walk through examples of these models with Chris giving background on each of the cases. Prof. Soper argues the case that the pluralist model is best at recognizing the importance of religion in the public square while still allowing space for secular claims. Our discussion also centers around how each of the states are meeting and accommodating increased religious pluralism, most notably with respect to the growing presence of Islam. With Islam being a much more decentralized faith tradition than the typical European Christian denominations, it has been difficult to absorb this religion into historical church-state models, particularly those of the establishment variant, but efforts have been made to do this. We finish our podcast with Chris giving his opinion about the viability of a Christian Democratic party in the United States (revisiting a question from an earlier podcast), and reflecting on what he has learned over two decades and three editions of his book. Recorded: March 28,2017.

The Challenge of Pluralism: Church and State in Six Democracies, by J. Christopher Soper, Kevin den Dulk, and Stephen Monsma.

Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and Germany, by Joel Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper.

Confucianism, Democracy, and Human Rights in Taiwan, by Joel Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper.

RELATED PODCASTS

Joel Fetzer on Confucianism and Democracy.

Ahmet Kuru on Islam in Europe.

Claire Adida on Discrimination towards Muslims in France.

Evan Haefeli on the Dutch Origins of Religious Tolerance.

Russ Roberts & Anthony Gill on Religion and Religious Liberty.

Ani Sarkissian on Religion and Religious Civil Society in Turkey.

Does American Need a Christian Democratic Party?

Thomas Kidd on the Pilgrims (Encore Presentation)

tonygill — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 09:00:54 +0000

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, and part of our rotating encore feature this week, Prof. Thomas Kidd (Baylor University) returns to our podcast series to cover the history of a group of religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims. After Tony attempts to recite a rather famous poem about the Pilgrims, we explore the roots of this group dating back to the English Reformation and how dissent within the Church of England in the 16th century set a group of individuals from Scrooby, England on a journey that would eventually land them on Plymouth Rock. We follow the Pilgrims to the Netherlands and talk about their experiences there and discuss the reasons why they were able to obtain a charter for settlement in the North American colonies of Britain. Prof. Kidd details the importance of the Mayflower Compact and what life was like for settlers in a new land, including a tangential discussion on the importance of beer to the Puritans. (You will want to hear how brewing was beneficial to the Puritans and why the Puritans were not as prudish as one might think.) We finish our podcast with Prof. Kidd’s thoughts on the legacy of the Pilgrims for American development and a brief history of the holiday we have come to know as Thanksgiving. This podcast serves as a great introduction or review of the Pilgrims for high schoolers and homeschoolers and we encourage you to bring it to the attention of all those who might be interested. Prof. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University, senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co-director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion. Recorded: October 5, 2010.

Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

American Colonial History: Clashing Cultures and Faiths, by Thomas Kidd.

George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father, by Thomas Kidd.

Baptists in America: A History, by Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins.

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America, by Thomas Kidd.

God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution, by Thomas Kidd.

Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, by Thomas Kidd.

RELATED PODCASTS

Tracy McKenzie on the First Thanksgiving.

Thomas Kidd on the Great Awakening.

Evan Haefeli on the Dutch Origins of Religious Liberty.

Pamela Edwards on Samuel Taylor Coleridge

tonygill — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 09:00:50 +0000

While best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) also was a philosopher, historian, and theologian who had a great deal to say about the politics of his day. Dr. Pamela Edwards, an expert on Coleridge’s thought and the director of academic programs at the Jack Miller Center, discusses the life and times of this interesting figure.

Our conversation begins with a biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, including his youth as one of 13 children to an Anglican minister and his education in Christ’s Hospital, a school dispossessed children of clergy. We follow him through a period of turbulence at Cambridge University, where he never completed his degree and toyed around with a number of different theological and political ideas. Dr. Edwards then explains how Coleridge made his living after leaving Cambridge, finding friends and patrons that would sponsor his work and serving as a writer in various formats including poetry, journalism, and pamphlet writing. We discuss his various influences, including Edmund Burke, and how the unfolding of events of the era, namely the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, had an impact on him. As the podcast progresses, we note his unique historical position of straddling the very tail end of the feudal aristocratic period and the emergence of the Industrial Revolution.

Pamela then walks us through the development of Coleridge’s thinking on politics and how it blended his philosophical thoughts on Christianity and history. This journey begins with The Statemen’s Manual; or The Bible, the Best Guide to Political Skill and Foresight. Pamela makes note that the full titles of all his work are very important to understanding the content of his writing. This Lay Sermon, was aimed at educating politicians and diplomats about good governance. We discuss how much of this was rooted in the ideas of covenant and contracts in the Old Testament.

Our discussion then takes a look at On the Constitution of Church and State According to the Idea of Each. Again, Pamela notes the importance of the full title of the work and how it mattered that the term “Idea” was capitalized throughout the work. Here we dip into Coleridge’s view of history as an emanation of the divine and the living memory of the nation. Coleridge argues that the Church is a fulcrum point in history balancing the permanence of history (represented by the landed gentry) and progress (the coming commercial age). Coleridge’s political philosophy was to infuse an aristocratic spirit into an increasingly democratic world.

The interview finishes with some of Pamela’s reflections on how Coleridge would view our world today, noting that the fragmentation that we tend to have amongst specialized departments in modern universities would be unsettling to him, as he saw things in a much more holistic light. Dr. Edwards also discusses the importance of having a moral foundation for both “experts and amateurs” that helps to anchor our increasingly technical world. Recorded: February 11, 2015.

The Statesman’s Science: History, Nature, and Law in the Political Thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by Pamela Edwards.

The Oxford Handbook on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, edited by Frederick Burwick.

The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, by Deidre McCloskey (mentioned in podcast).

RELATED PODCASTS

John Mark Reynolds on Dickens and “A Christmas Carol.”

Jason Jewell on John Locke and Religious Toleration.

Jason Jewell on Why Christians Should Read the “Great Books.”

Thomas Kidd on the Pilgrims (Encore Presentation)

tonygill — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 09:00:13 +0000

While Tony is on a short break, we dip into the archive to bring you an encore presentation for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Prof. Thomas Kidd (Baylor University) returns to our podcast series to cover the history of a group of religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims. After Tony attempts to recite a rather famous poem about the Pilgrims, we explore the roots of this group dating back to the English Reformation and how dissent within the Church of England in the 16th century set a group of individuals from Scrooby, England on a journey that would eventually land them on Plymouth Rock. We follow the Pilgrims to the Netherlands and talk about their experiences there and discuss the reasons why they were able to obtain a charter for settlement in the North American colonies of Britain. Prof. Kidd details the importance of the Mayflower Compact and what life was like for settlers in a new land, including a tangential discussion on the importance of beer to the Puritans. (You will want to hear how brewing was beneficial to the Puritans and why the Puritans were not as prudish as one might think.) We finish our podcast with Prof. Kidd’s thoughts on the legacy of the Pilgrims for American development and a brief history of the holiday we have come to know as Thanksgiving. This podcast serves as a great introduction or review of the Pilgrims for high schoolers and homeschoolers and we encourage you to bring it to the attention of all those who might be interested. Prof. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University, senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion. Recorded: October 5, 2010.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Thomas Kidd’s website.

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and Program on Historical Studies of Religion.

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America by Thomas Kidd.

God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas Kidd.

The Protestant Interest: New England after Puritanism by Thomas Kidd.

RELATED PODCASTS

Thomas Kidd on the Great Awakening.

Tracy McKenzie on the First Thanksgiving.

Christopher Grenda on Religious Satire during the Enlightenment (and Today)

tonygill — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:00:38 +0000

Can satire be used to prompt religious reform? Prof. Christopher Grenda, an associate professor of history at CUNY- Bronx Community College, discusses his recent research on satire during the English Enlightenment (c. late 17th and 18th centuries). Chris tells us how he stumbled onto this research topic and then we spend some time discussing what satire is relative to other forms of humor such as parody and irony. Our conversation uses several contemporary instances where satire has led some individuals to get into trouble, including humorist Mark Steyn who was brought up before a Canadian Human Rights Commission for his satirical writings. We then move backwards in time to the English Enlightenment. Chris lays out the historical context of what is happening in jolly old England in terms of politics and religion. It is a time of great ferment, with the early Stuart monarchs trying to consolidate their power at the time when religious dissent is arising. Early satirists such as Charles Blount (a Deist) and Ralph Wallis (an orthodox Christian) become some of the first writers to critique the Church of England for its seemingly corrupt practices. Our conversation then takes various historical turns (not always in sequence) as we discuss other authors such as Thomas Paine, John Witherspoon, David Hume, and Anthony Ashley-Cook (a.k.a. the Third Earl of Shaftesbury). We explore the different ways in which each of these writers used wit to lampoon the powerful ecclesiastics of their day, and Chris provides some memorable and surprisingly cutting quotes from their works. Chris mentions that satire becomes increasingly “democratized” with the spread of literacy and printing technology, and how this affects the style of writing in order to reach new and different audiences. Throughout the podcast, we also learn about how the authorities responded to such satire and how many of these literary figures had to use pen names or circulate their missives underground. We close with some thoughts on satire in the contemporary world and how our present society may be a bit less tolerant of such dissent than in the past. Recorded: February 12, 2013.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Christopher Grenda at CUNY.

“The Right to Ridicule” by Ronald Dworkin in the New York Times Review of Books.

The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America, by Chris Beneke and Christopher Grenda.

Jason Jewell on John Locke & Religious Toleration

tonygill — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:00:16 +0000

John Locke is a name that comes up frequently on our podcast when discussing religious liberty and toleration. To find out more about this great philosopher and political economist, we invite Prof. Jason Jewell to our program to enlighten us as to the life, times, and philosophy of Locke. Jason is the chair of the Department of Humanities at Faulkner University (Alabama) and the creator of The Western Traditon, a blog that is devoted to all things Christian and Classical. We begin our chat by setting the historical table on which Locke was feasting, covering the important events occuring in England and Europe during the 17th century, including the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the Glorious Revolution. We then discuss Locke’s general intellectual contributions to Western civilization and contrast him to another famed philosopher of the 1600s, Thomas Hobbes. Our discussion then leads to Locke’s (First) Letter Concerning Toleration, which Tony admits to being the longest “letter” he has ever read. Jason explains that since they didn’t have television or football back then, intellectuals usually spent their time writing. We look into Locke’s thoughts on whether or not individuals can be coerced into their faith and how this affects Locke’s view of church-state relations, followed by Locke’s views on religious toleration in an environment of increasing pluralism. Tony pushes Prof. Jewell on the issue of Locke’s toleration as it related to Catholics and how Locke may have viewed Mormons had he lived today. (Hat tip to Prof. Ruth Arnell, an avid listener, for suggesting that question on our Facebook page.) We wrap up by reviewing what Jason has been doing at Faulkner University and on his blog, The Western Tradition, as it pertains to the canonical readings of Western literature. Jason disappoints Tony by indicating that The Political Origins of Religious Liberty did not make the list of all-time classics. Listeners are encouarged to join Jason Jewell’s journey as he tackles several thousand pages of reading. Recorded: November 22, 2011.

RELATED LINKS

The Western Tradition, Jason Jewell’s blog where he is reading and reviewing the great works of Western literature.

Prof. Jewell’s specific post on John Locke on The Western Tradition.

Faulkner University.

RELATED PODCASTS

Allen Hertzke on Religious Liberty.

Mark David Hall on Roger Sherman, Puritan Patriot.

Roger Finke on Religious Persecution.

Thomas Kidd on the Pilgrims

tonygill — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 09:00:15 +0000

Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Prof. Thomas Kidd (Baylor University) returns to our podcast series to cover the hsitory of a group of religious dissenters known as the Pilgrims. After Tony attempts to recite a rather famous poem about the Pilgrims, we explore the roots of this group dating back to the English Reformation and how dissent within the Church of England in the 16th century set a group of individuals from Scrooby, England on a journey that would eventually land them on Plymouth Rock. We follow the Pilgrims to the Netherlands and talk about their experiences there and discuss the reasons why they were able to obtain a charter for settlement in the North American colonies of Britain. Prof. Kidd details the importance of the Mayflower Compact and what life was like for settlers in a new land, including a tangential discussion on the importance of beer to the Puritans. (You will want to hear how brewing was beneficial to the Puritans and why the Puritans were not as prudish as one might think.) We finish our podcast with Prof. Kidd’s thoughts on the legacy of the Pilgrims for American development and a brief history of the holiday we have come to know as Thanksgiving. This podcast serves as a great introduction or review of the Pilgrims for high schoolers and homeschoolers and we encourage you to bring it to the attention of all those who might be interested. Prof. Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University, senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and co director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion. Recorded: October 5, 2010.

RELATED LINKS

Prof. Thomas Kidd’s website.

Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and Program on Historical Studies of Religion.

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America by Thomas Kidd.

God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas Kidd.

The Protestant Interest: New England after Puritanism by Thomas Kidd.

RELATED PODCASTS

Thomas Kidd on the Great Awakening.

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.