This is an essay about the future of liberalism in the light of its past. It is designed to recall some of what liberals have been through in the recent past in order to make sense of where they are now headed. And in particular it is intended to bring to light the complexity – and uncertainty – of the fate that awaits them.

This is not something, needless to say, which can be taken for granted. For now that events are turning out well for them, there is a predictable tendency on the part of liberals (as well as many others) to assume that their present success has a simple, straightforward meaning. Hence the talk we are hearing of their having “won” the great ideological competition of our time and even of “history” having come to an end in the process – all of which gives the impression that it is obvious what has taken place and where it leads. But it is not. And the more one knows of the actual history of the events in question, I would submit, the more evident it is that this is the case.

This volume is the product of a study project jointly sponsored by the Woodstock Theological Center and the Department of Government of Georgetown University. The project was designed to facilitate an interdisciplinary and interfaith dialogue on the relevance of the Catholic tradition to the future development of the philosophy that informs the public life of the United States. Because of the special role that liberalism has come to play in the affairs of the nation, the project focused particular attention on the prospects for a fresh Catholic contribution to the shaping of the American mind in the light of what it is that liberal thinking has become. It was predicated on the assumption that both the teaching of the church and the premises of liberal thinking about our public life have changed significantly since the days when they stood in principled opposition to one another. The task posed to each of the participants was to take stock, prospectively, of the situation that now prevails in the light of the changes that both Catholicism and liberalism have undergone.

The chapters contained in this volume are revised versions of manuscripts originally presented in a series of meetings extending from the spring of 1989 through the fall of 1990. The meetings were held at the Woodstock Center Library on the campus of Georgetown University.

The directors wish to indicate here their grateful appreciation of J. Leon Hooper, SJ, for his ongoing help in administering the affairs of the project.

America, scholars are fond of saying, is a nation that owes its existence to ideas. Perhaps uniquely so. And what they have in mind, of course, when they speak this way are serious ideas – ideas of the sort that find expression in solemn declarations and lend themselves to being characterized as a “philosophy.” It is a paradoxical claim, to be sure, because the way of life that has developed on these shores is scarcely one that has been conducive to philosophical reflection. And it cannot be said that philosophical reflection is an activity held in much respect by Americans, either. But the claim remains true, nonetheless, and it tells us something important about who we are as a people.

For even though we may pride ourselves on being “pragmatic” (as opposed to doctrinaire) and go out of our way to insist that one person's opinion is as good as the next (almost regardless of who the person is and what the opinions in question are), there is, at the same time, no mistaking the fact that there are some things about which we are very principled. We may be disinclined to read philosophical works very much and impatient with the sort of arguments they expound.