Taking Faith Seriously

“To the editors of Taking Faith Seriously, the mutual interdependence of the religious and the secular allows us to avoid the extremes of ‘faith-based boosterism’ and ‘dogmatic secularism’… Were they to avoid this coarsening polarization, Americans could find common ground on some of the most contentious issues of the day… Secularists ought to extend rights of recognition to believers, and believers ought to understand that liberal pluralism includes a place for them. Taking Faith Seriously offers a series of case studies designed to demonstrate that the always tricky and sometimes unsolvable puzzles posed by faith in a liberal democracy can best be addressed by appreciating the role that religion actually plays in concrete circumstances.”—Alan Wolfe, The New Republic