Professor

Brendan Sweetman

(Rockhurst University, Kansas City, USA)

Religion, Politics

and Modern Culture

30 hour-course, 1 hour credit, 2 ECTS points

May 12-17, 2008

 

May 12 (MONDAY) ROOM GG 107

May 13 - May 17 (TUESDAY-SATURDAY) ROOM GG 38

 

 

Summary

This course will examine what role, if any, religion can play in politics in a modern, pluralist and democratic society. Are there any good reasons for excluding religious views from politics? Is secularism the only worldview that can influence modern politics and society? The views of recent political philosophers will be discussed, e.g., those of John Rawls, Robert Audi and Kent Greenawalt. Other important topics covered will include the concept of a worldview; the rise of secularism as a worldview in itself; the reasonability of religious belief; moral relativism in modern culture; and religious and secularist re-sponses to ethical issues.

Reading:

• Brendan Sweetman, Why Politics Needs Religion: The Place of Religious Arguments in the Public Square (InterVarsity Press, 2006)

Prerequisites:

• Please, read: Brendan Sweetman, „Chrześcijanski polityk we współczesnym świecie?" („A Christian Politician in the Contemporary World?"), Czlowiek i panstwo (Man and the State), (ed. by P. Jaroszyński..., Lublin 2006, pp. 61-75). To get this article, please, contact with the coordinator.

 

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Coordinator: Fr. Paweł Tarasiewicz, Ph.D. (kstaras[at]kul.pl)