Constructing Civility

Richard S. Park

Description

In Constructing Civility, Richard Park bridges Christian and Islamic political theologies on the basis of an Aristotelian ethics. He argues that modern secularism entails ideological commitments that can work against the promotion of public civility in pluralistic societies. A corrective outlook on public life and the public sphere is necessary, an outlook that aligns with and recovers the notion of the human good. Park develops a framework for a universally applicable public civility in multifaith and multicultural contexts by engaging the central concepts of the "image of God" (imago Dei) and "human nature" (fitra) in Roman Catholicism and Islam.

The study begins with a critique of the social fragmentation and decline of public life found in modernity. Park's central contention is that the construction of public civility within Christian and Islamic political theologies is more promising and sustainable if it is reframed in terms of the human good rather than the common good. The book offers an illustration of the proposed framework of public civility in Mindanao, Philippines, an area that represents one of the longest-standing conflicts between Christian and Muslim communities. Park's sophisticated treatment brings together theology, philosophy, religious studies, intellectual history, and political theory, and will appeal to scholars in all of those fields.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Comparative Religion
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Catholic Church
• General officer
• Religion
• General
• Islam

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268102760
• Langue: English

Extrait

Constructing Civility
RICHARD S. PARK
Constructing Civility
The Human Good in Christian
and Islamic Political Theologies
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS
NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
Copyright © 2017 by the University of Notre Dame
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Park, Richard S., 1975– author.
Title: Constructing civility : the human good in Christian and Islamic political theologies / Richard S. Park.
Description: Notre Dame : University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017024323 (print) | LCCN 2017032084 (ebook) |
ISBN 978-0-268-10275-3 (web pdf) | ISBN 978-0-268-10276-0 (ePub) |
ISBN 9780268102739 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268102732 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion and politics. | Common good—Religious aspects. | Religious ethics. | Religion and sociology. | Catholic Church—Doctrines. | Islam—Doctrines.
Classification: LCC BL65.P7 (ebook) | LCC BL65.P7 P38 2017 (print) |
DDC 201/.72—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017024323
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
To my wife, Christine,
whose strength and dignity
are my sine qua non
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
ONE Religious Diversity and Public Civility
TWO Modernity’s Mayhem and the Need for Moral Political Theory
THREE The Decline of Public Life
FOUR A Case for the Human Good
FIVE The Human Good and Catholic Social Thought
SIX The Human Good within Islamic Political Ethics
SEVEN Public Civility and Islamic Political Theology
EIGHT The Prospects of Public Civility
NINE The Human Good and the Scope of Public Civility
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The gratitude one has for the benefits one receives can be difficult to put into words. While recognizing this difficulty and risking some (possibly obvious) omissions, I would like to acknowledge the help that I have received in this effort of “constructing civility.” First and foremost, I thank my parents, Brian and Soo, who have taught me, more through life than with words, the virtues of a disciplined mind, a joyful spirit, and a God-fearing disposition. They have sacrificed much; they have shown even more.
I am deeply indebted for the always wise, never tiring, ever kind feedback and friendship of Mark D. Chapman at the University of Oxford. He never let on that he knew all of the answers to the questions he posed to me; surely, such is the mark of a brilliant educator. The wisdom and moral courage of Os Guinness and David Horner—who are themselves graduates of Oriel College, Oxford—have helped me to see what true mentors are. Their strength of character, their care for this world, and their devotion to following the Way are virtues I seek always to emulate.
For various aspects of this multidisciplinary work, I thank, in political theory, Monica Duffy Toft (Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford); for my appreciation of social theory and modernity critique, Os Guinness; in legal theory and Catholic social thought, Paul Yowell (Oriel College, Oxford); for Islamic legal and political thought, the scholars at the Center for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford, including Shabbir Akhtar, Ida Glaser, and Martin Whittingham; and for the incredible capacity of seeing how all of it fits together, my doctoral supervisor, Mark Chapman. Through extensive feedback and collegial encouragement, these distinguished thinkers have contributed greatly to my academic journey at Oxford and beyond.

I am very grateful to those who participated in the interviews I conducted in Mindanao, Philippines: Albert Alejo, SJ; Angel Calvo, CMF; former Archbishop Fernando Capalla, DD; Sebastiano D’Ambra, PIME; Myla Leguro of Catholic Relief Services; Moner Bajunaid and Amina Rasul of the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy; and Mohagher Iqbal, Peace Panel chairperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Their work has undoubtedly contributed to the peace of the southern Philippines; I hope that I have done justice to their insights.
Fellow sojourners who have enriched my soul include Max and Michelle Baker-Hytch, Jonathan and Tricia Brant, Britton and Michelle Brooks, Charlie and Anita Cleverly, James Crocker, Geoff Dargan, Harry and Minerva Edwards, Pete and Angela Howard, Kurt and Michaela Jaros, Peter and Gina Kim, Peter and Jennifer Kim, Jon and Susan Knoche, Roy and Jean Lee, Jeremy and Sarah Livermore, Luke Martin, Shaun McNaughton, Nazirudin Mohd Nasir and Azrifah Zakaria, Thomas and Nary Oh, Esther Park and Mijin Park, Ryan and Jen Pemberton, Bobby and Clare Ryu, and Jeff and Solange Siribandan. I also thank my parents-in-law, Young and Helen, who are a constant and kind source of encouragement and prayers.
I am immensely grateful to the University of Notre Dame Press, especially Stephen Little, Rebecca DeBoer, and Sheila Berg, whose encouragement and expertise have made the publication process extremely efficient and deeply delightful. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for the press for helping to make the arguments herein stronger and clearer.
Finally, I thank my wife, Christine, who gave up nearly everything to allow me this opportunity to flourish, fail, and finally find myself standing on this side of the City of Dreaming Spires with my head high, heart humbled, and hand held. I cannot thank you enough, my love; but every day I will try. From early morning prayers to midnight feasts, you will always be my line in the sand, my queen, my everything.
INTRODUCTION
With religion’s global public resurgence, increasing social unrest and rampant violence have sounded a clarion call for a peaceable framework for a common public life. Crucial to the task of constructing such a framework within advanced modernity is (1) a critical look at the ideas that have helped to shape the modern outlook; and (2) a critical appreciation of the social contexts in which the advanced modern world is situated. The overarching aim of this book is to consider ways of constructing a framework of what I call public civility , specifically within liberal democratic societies. More specifically, I am interested in constructing this framework between two of the world’s largest faith communities, Roman Catholicism and Islam.
By “public civility,” I mean the attitudes, affirmations, and actions consonant with a just and peaceable common public life. The deeply fragmentizing effects that modernity has had on plural societies tend to exacerbate instances of the increasingly pervasive religious conflict. In order to counteract such fragmentation in the context of religiously divided societies, we must examine (among other things) the relevant political theologies of the religious groups in question. Yet given the social, political, legal, and theological dimensions pertinent to constructing a framework of public civility, this work is necessarily multifaceted, involving sociology (theories of modernity and multiculturalism), political science (studies on religion and violence), philosophy (analyses of legal pluralism and moral relativism), and an exploration of Roman Catholic and Islamic political theologies.
Secularist frameworks such as multiculturalism and legal pluralism have been put forward as approaches to constructing public civility. Yet insofar as these approaches fail to take seriously an objective moral dimension they are relativistic and thereby lack the resources needed to ground a universal public civility. Within the faith communities of Roman Catholicism and Islam, a common approach to constructing a “just society” is based on the notion of the common good . The problem with these approaches is that the so-called common good is defined such that the “good” is ineluctably un-“common.” In this work, I suggest that a more promising basis on which to construct a universal framework of public civility is found in the wisdom of an ancient thinker—Aristotle—who articulates a notion of the human good .
The argument proceeds in three main stages. First, I engage in a critical assessment of ideological and sociological forces that have resulted in the deep fragmentation of modern society and the decline of public life (chs. 1–3). Second, I provide a detailed delineation of the human good (ch. 4) on the basis of which I construct a framework of public civility between Roman Catholic and Islamic traditions (chs. 5–7). (Here I explore the Roman Catholic doctrine of the imago Dei and the Islamic notion of fi ra as conceptual counterparts to the human good.) I then consider an illustration of the proposed framework in an area that represents one of the longest-standing internal conflicts in human history, Mindanao, Philippines (ch. 8). The overarching argument is that, when reframed in terms of the human good rather than the common good, Catholic and Islamic political theologies can contribute positively and invaluably to the construction of public civility.
I offer some concluding remarks (ch. 9) on the implications that follow from this investigation: (1) what I call “dialogical friendships” is crucial to constructing a global framework of public civility; and (2) global moral responsibility is indeed justified and required. Thus my aim is to show how the Aristotelian notion of the human good serves as a promising basis for constructing public civility in liberal democratic societies among two of the largest faith communities in our world today.
chapter I
RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND PUBLIC CIVILITY
If we are to analyze and propose a framework for robust a