Religion and politics are perennial topics of concern and debate in any free society. Their interaction has recently become a major preoccupation in many parts of the world and especially in the United States. It is inevitable that reflective religious people should discuss religion and that thoughtful citizens should discuss politics. It is perhaps not inevitable, but it is altogether appropriate, for a liberal democracy – a free and democratic society – in which religion is a major cultural force to concern itself with the relation between religion and politics. This is particularly so where the religions represented in the society imply, or are readily seen to imply, a political philosophy or at least an ethic that bears directly on politics. All that certainly applies to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which are immensely important in the contemporary world and are the main religious perspectives of concern in this book.

My primary aim is to articulate a perspective on religion and politics that is appropriate for both citizens and institutions in a liberal democracy. I have in mind particularly, but by no means exclusively, religious citizens and governmental institutions. This task requires a position on separation of church and state. But even more urgently, it demands a good understanding of the proper balance between, on the one hand, religious commitments that bear on what sort of society we should have, and on the other hand, political and other secular considerations pertinent to the same range of objectives.