Editorial: Religious and Axiological Problems of Identity Politics

Abstract

Due to the popularity of the “secularisation thesis” and of mainstream liberalism’s neutrality in matters of religion, ethics and moral norms, the political sciences in the second half of the 20th century were marked by the relative absence of a scholarly debate about the political relevance of religious and axiological beliefs. The turn of the century witnessed a robust return of religion and axiology to political theory in the form of “identity politics,” which appears to still be on the rise after two decades rather than in decline. The current issue includes eight essays which explore various religious and axiological aspects of identity politics. The authors strive both to map the challenges resulting from religious and value pluralism and to outline the conditions of constructively accommodating religious and axiological traditions within a broadly liberal political order. Methodologically speaking, the essays belong to the realm of political philosophy, and while some of them entail certain policy recommendations, their main contribution is meant to be theoretical in nature. The stage is set by Joseph Rivera’s expansion of John Rawls’ classic proposal of accommodating religious and value pluralism within a liberal “overlapping consensus.” Rivera tries to mediate between the narrative of identity politics that appear to challenge the liberal order and the narrative of liberal dialogue within a hermeneutical framework of civic friendship aimed at deflating partisan rivalry. He argues that liberalism need not be understood as a theory of how one may best “leave each alone” as isolated social atoms, but it can instead foster a robust dialogue not only among individuals but among larger social groups grounded in particular traditions as well. In this way, liberalism helps negotiate pluralism without giving up morally “thick lifeworlds.” Göran Collste also adopts John Rawls’ theory of liberal tolerance and pluralistic consensus as the horizon of his exploration of “epistemic injustice” as a current socio-political phenomenon constituting an extension of Western cultural domination and the cultural parochialism of a colonial past. Collste identifies the danger of distorting the liberal values