Politics, the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and the Modern West

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Political Science Graduate Theses & Dissertations Political Science
Summer 6-20-2014
Politics, the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and the
Modern West: Envisioning Political Liberalism
through an Arendtian Lens
Martin Anthony DeNicolo
University of Colorado Boulder, [email protected]
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an Arendtian Lens" (2014).Political Science Graduate Theses & Dissertations.Paper 3.
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POLITICS, THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION, AND THE MODERN WEST:
ENVISIONING POLITICAL LIBERALISM THROUGH AN ARENDTIAN LENS
by
MARTIN ANTHONY DENICOLO
B.A., Valparaiso University, 2007
M.A., University of Colorado, 2009

A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Colorado in partial fulfillment
of the requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
2014
This thesis entitled:
Politics, the Judeo-Christian Tradition and the Modern West: Envisioning Political Liberalism
through an Arendtian Lens
written by Martin Anthony DeNicolo
has been approved for the Department of Political Science

Chair: Horst Mewes, Associate Professor of Political Science

David R. Mapel, Associate Professor of Political Science

Michaele Ferguson, Associate Professor of Political Science

Steven Vanderheiden, Associate Professor of Political Science

Deborah Whitehead, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

Date

The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we
Find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards
Of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline.
DeNicolo, Martin Anthony (Ph.D., Political Science)
Politics, the Judeo-Christian Tradition, and the Modern West: Envisioning Political Liberalism
through an Arendtian Lens
Thesis directed by Associate Professor Horst Mewes

What role should religion play in the political deliberations and decisions of liberal
democratic citizens? In light of recent political phenomena such as Quebec’s proposed ban on
the wearing of religious symbols in 2013, the constant theocratic threat posed by the religious
right as perceived by the secular left and libertarian right in the United States, or the 2009
banning of minarets in Switzerland, this is a pressing question for modern democracy. In this
dissertation I argue that religious citizens should be allowed to make recourse to comprehensive
accounts of their positions in political debates and decisions, but that these accounts should not
dominate these debates and decisions in accordance with the principle of respect for persons.
The Judeo-Christian tradition was its source in the West, but respect for persons took political
shape following the Wars of Religion that plagued Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries CE.
Through the gradual political affirmation of the principle of respect liberal democracies
emerging out of these wars experienced the proliferation and multiplication of fundamentally
opposed worldviews. What these worldviews shared was and continues to be the affirmation of
this principle, and recognition of this fact creates the possibility of liberal democratic political
respect, or concord, across fundamental difference. In the liberal democratic world citizens are
equalized by their shared affirmation of the principle of respect for persons. My claim is that the
principle of political respect allows for expression of the fundamentally irreconcilable
worldviews that overlap in affirming the principle of respect in political debates and decisions
and that the principle of respect depends on their continually being freely expressed in order to
retain its normative force in politics. Drawing heavily on Arendt’s writings on religion and
morality, I conclude that, despite the supposedly “secular” character of liberal democratic
politics, the principle of respect for persons must be rooted in exemplary embodiments of
iii
morality, which I claim are “religious” insofar as they transcend the limits of politics. Jesus of
Nazareth is the example to whom Arendt points, but his need not be the only one.

iv
CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………1

2. RELIGION AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY .......................................12

Introduction .............................................................................................12

I. Three Interpretations of the Problem ...................................................15

a. Political Liberalism .....................................................................15

b. Deliberative Democrats ..............................................................19

c. Agonal Democrats ......................................................................23

II. A Politics and a Religion ....................................................................27

a. The Greco-Roman Tradition .......................................................27

b. The Judeo-Christian Tradition ....................................................30

c. Mixed Results of the Fusion of Traditions .................................37

d. Modernity as Shift, Not Break ....................................................39

III. Reassessing the Problem ...................................................................45

Conclusion ..............................................................................................51

3. THREE PROBLEMS WITH RAWLS’ A THEORY OF
JUSTICE ...........................................................................................54

Introduction .............................................................................................54

I. The Metaphysical Presuppositions of TJ .............................................59

II. Comprehensive Doctrines ..................................................................63

III. Three Problems with TJ ....................................................................68

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a. The Problem of Nihilism ............................................................69

b. The Problem of Reflective Equilibrium ......................................72

c. The Problem of Stability .............................................................75

Conclusion ..............................................................................................80

4. RAWLS’ HISTORICAL TURN.............................................................83

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................83

I. Political Liberalism’s Diachronic Account .........................................85

II. Reconceiving Reasonableness in Light of the Diachronic
Account .......................................................................................97

III. Returning to the Three Problems with TJ .......................................109

IV. Remembering Modernity ...............................................................118

Conclusion ............................................................................................129

5. FREEDOM, PLURALISM, AND STABILITY IN ARENDT’S
THOUGHT .....................................................................................130

Introduction ...........................................................................................130

I. Arendt and Political Liberalism ......................................................136

II. The World as Action .......................................................................144

III. Political Freedom and Its Constitution ...........................................152

Conclusion ............................................................................................159

6. RELIGION AND ARENDTIAN POLITICAL
LIBERALISM.................................................................................163

Introduction ...........................................................................................163

I. In Search of a Religious Arendt ......................................................170

vi
II. Engaging Religion in Arendt Scholarship ......................................179

III. Two Key Distinctions in Arendt’s Thought....................................186

a. Secularity and Religion .............................................................187

b. Immortality, Eternity, and Aeviternity ......................................190

IV. An Arendtian Political Liberalism .................................................197

Conclusion ............................................................................................207

7. CONCLUSION .....................................................................................211

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………..……………………………………………217

vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

I don’t feel any loyalty to Christ. I may feel a loyalty to Jesus, because that is
indeed an example, what Jesus did, and his whole life, the logoi, and all the
stories, this can indeed become an example.

-Hannah Arendt (Bernauer 1987, 15)

[The Church] must not underestimate the importance of human example (which
has its origin in the humanity of Jesus and is so important in Paul’s teaching); it
is not abstract argument, but example, that gives its word emphasis and power.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1967, 211)

In the following dissertation I explore an important, but relatively neglected, aspect of
Arendt’s work and its relation to the later work of John Rawls, combining them with an
historical account of the relationship between the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions to
answer the question of what kind of role religion should play in the political deliberations and
decisions of liberal democratic citizens. I come to the conclusion that, although not central to
their work, certain aspects of religion potentially play a far greater positive role than is generally
assumed in the literature on their political thought. In light of recent political phenomena such as
Quebec’s proposed ban on the wearing of religious symbols (echoing laïcité in France) in 2013,
the constant theocratic threat posed by the religious right as perceived by the secular left and
libertarian right in the United States, or the 2009 banning of minarets in Switzerland, this is a
pressing concern for modern democracy.
The thesis of this dissertation is that religious citizens should be allowed to make
recourse to comprehensive accounts of their positions in political debates and decisions, but that
these accounts should not dominate these debates and decisions in accordance with the principle
of respect for persons. The Judeo-Christian tradition was its source in the West, but respect for
persons took political shape following the Wars of Religion that plagued Europe in the 16th and
17th centuries CE. Through the gradual political affirmation of the principle of respect, at first
reluctantly in the attenuated form of the principle of toleration, liberal democracies emerging out
of these wars experienced the proliferation and multiplication of fundamentally opposed
worldviews. What these worldviews shared was and continues to be the affirmation of this
principle, and recognition of this fact creates the possibility of liberal democratic concord across
fundamental difference. Throughout the dissertation, when I refer to political respect, equal
respect, or mutual respect, as opposed to respect for persons, I mean concord. Thus, while many
principles may equalize citizens, signifying civic friends, in accordance with the character of the
world within which these citizens find themselves, in the liberal democratic world citizens are
equalized by their shared affirmation of the values of freedom and equality, and, most
importantly, the principle of respect for persons both of these values reflect in their modern form.
My claim is that the principle of political respect allows for expression of the fundamentally
irreconcilable worldviews that overlap in affirming the principle of respect in political debates
and decisions and that the principle of respect depends on their continually being freely
expressed in order to retain its normative force in politics. Drawing heavily on Arendt’s writings
on religion and morality, I (no doubt controversially) conclude that, despite the supposedly
“secular” character of liberal democratic politics, the principle of respect for persons must be
2