Democracy Conference Schedule

Mitchell Bahnsen (Westmont College)
“Social Imaginaries at 250: Charles Taylor and the Tensions of Modernity”

This paper argues that America’s democratic crisis is fundamentally moral and cultural, not merely institutional. Drawing on Charles Taylor, it traces how atomism, instrumental reason, and struggles for recognition have fragmented the democratic social imaginary. Situating these tensions within Lockean liberalism’s moral roots, it contends that recovering Christian accounts of dignity can renew democratic legitimacy without undermining pluralism.
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Amen Gashaw (University of Cambridge)
"Christomorphic Pluralism: Schleiermacher’s Christ and American Religious Freedom"

Religious freedom and the pluralism it facilitates are among the founding tenets of American constitutional democracy. Yet many American Christians remain suspicious of them, fearing that protection of other faiths de-centers Christ and compromises Christian commitment. This paper challenges that assumption through Friedrich Schleiermacher's theology of the religions. His "christomorphic" model sees Christ redeeming a world of necessary religious diversity, thus offering a distinctly Christ-centered basis for resisting majoritarian constitutional erosion and appreciating the plurality of faith traditions that democracy nurtures. 
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Esther Kim (Yale Divinity School)
“Unity Amidst Difference in the Church and State: Insights from Religious Pluralism for Political Pluralism”

While political theologies have long explored how specific traditions inform public life (i.e., Christian or Islamic political theologies), far less attention has been given to how pluralist theologies can enrich the same. Yet the project of cultivating harmonious civil society across differences should appropriately draw upon pluralistic theological resources. Drawing on the work of theologians John Thatamanil, Mark Heim, and Paul Knitter, the paper argues that theological approaches to religious diversity illuminate a valuable outlook for political diversity.
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DISCUSSANT:
Micah Watson (Calvin University)