Are Religion and Democracy Compatible? A Timely Talk With Dr. David Elcott

3921 Fabian Way,Palo Alto CA 94303

11 February, 2023

Description

This event is in the Arrillaga Family Pavilion Building. Free parking is available at the venue, through the entrance on Fabian Way.For more info: [email protected] / [email protected] day, religion informs public discourse in democracies world-wide, and fuels societal polarization. Join us for a fascinating conversation about the roots of this trend, and how, surprisingly, religion can be used to support liberal democracies. ABOUT DR. ELCOTT: Dr. David Elcott is the Taub Professor of Practice in Public Service and Leadership at the Wagner School of Public Service at NYU and Director of the Advocacy and Political Action specialization. He currently teaches Social Psychology for men studying for their college degree at the Green Haven Maximum Security Prison, a continuation of his advocacy work on criminal justice reform in America. Dr. Elcott has also met with the prime ministers, foreign ministers, presidents, and kings in the search for Middle East peace. He has provided civic engagement training across the globe, from Indonesia to Uganda to South America, as well as representing the Jewish community to the Vatican and the World Council of Churches. ABOUT THE BOOK: Dr. Elcott’s book highlights the use of religious identity to fuel the rise of illiberal, nationalist, and populist democracy. The idea that religion can play a central role in national identity is certainly not new. In Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy, authors David Elcott, C. Colt Anderson, Tobias Cremer, and Volker Haarmann present a pragmatic and modernist exploration of how religion engages in the public square. Elcott and his co-authors are concerned about the ways religious identity can be used to foster the exclusion of individuals and communities from citizenship, political representation, and a role in determining public policy. They explore what constitutes a constructive religious voice in the political arena, even in nurturing patriotism and democracy, and what undermines and threatens liberal democracies. The authors examine the ways religious identity is weaponized to fuel revolts against a political, social, and economic order that values democracy in a global and strikingly diverse world. Included is a history and political analysis of religion, politics, and policies in Europe and the United States that foster this illiberal rebellion. To lay the groundwork for a religious response to this development, the book offers chapters showing how Catholicism, Protestantism, and Judaism can nourish liberal democracy. The authors encourage people of faith to promote foundational support for the institutions and values of the democratic enterprise from within their own religious traditions and to stand against the hostility and cruelty that historically have resulted when religious zealotry and state power combine. Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy does more than illuminate problems: it offers solutions to protect and support liberal democracy in order to care for those most vulnerable while protecting the civil and human rights of all. This book is intended for readers who value democracy and are concerned about growing threats to it, and especially for people of faith and religious leaders, as well as for scholars of political science, religion, and democracy. "In this trenchant analysis, Elcott . . . teams up with other researchers to explore the ways religion impacts politics in the U.S. and Europe. . . . This is a startling reminder of the insidious potential of religious identity being overtaken by extremist political forces." —Publishers Weekly "Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy . . . impart[s] a cogent, academic, and rich way of understanding how religion has been turned political weapon; it gives significant advice about what to do to address the problem . . . [and] explains how religious claims have been warped and understood to be more about belonging than believing." — Foreword Reviews (starred review) "The authors' comparative perspective helps us see our own context in a clearer light, and the activist reading of history and the present ask us, as readers and people of faith, to take action." —Jeannine Hill Fletcher, author of The Sin of White Supremacy ABOUT THE CO-AUTHORS: C. Colt Anderson is the outgoing Dean of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University. Tobias Cremer is a Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford, whose doctoral research focuses on the relationship between religion and the new wave of right-wing populism in Western Europe and North America. Volker Haarmann is the chair of the Department of Theology of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland