91ÖÆƬ³§

This event took place on October 6, 2022. 

91ÖÆƬ³§ the Lecture

Liberalism is taking a beating these days. But what do liberalism's critics offer by way of alternatives? One class of alternatives are religious anti-liberalisms. These doctrines combine opposition to liberalism with the claim that society promotes the spiritual aims of one of the great world religions. My talk will examine these doctrines through the lens of the most prominent Roman Catholic anti-liberalism: Catholic integralism.

Catholic integralism claims that governments must secure the earthly and heavenly common good. God authorizes two powers to do so. The state governs in matters temporal, the Catholic Church in matters spiritual. Since the church has the nobler end of salvation, it may direct the state to help enforce church law.

The integralist adopts two seemingly conflicting norms of justice: (a) coercion into the faith is always unjust, but (b) coercion to keep the faith is just. But if religious coercion is wrong at the start of the Christian life, why is it permitted after that? The integralist answer is baptism. Baptism serves as a normative transformer: it transforms religious coercion from unjust to just.

My thesis is that baptism fails as a normative transformer. I critique Thomas Aquinas's approach to this question and then adapt gratitude, associative, and natural duty theories of political obligation to repair his argument. These strategies fail.

91ÖÆƬ³§ the Speaker

Kevin Vallier is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University, where he directs their program in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law. Vallier's interests lie primarily in political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE). He is the author of three monographs, four edited volumes, and over forty peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles. His books include Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation (Routledge 2014), Must Politics Be War? Restoring Our Trust in the Open Society (Oxford UP 2019), and Trust in a Polarized Age (Oxford UP 2020). His next book will address religious anti-liberalisms, tentatively titled All the Kingdoms of the World (Oxford UP 2023). For more information, see kevinvallier.com or follow him @kvallier on Twitter.