Article
Polity (2005) 37, 82–107. doi:10.1057/palgrave.polity.2300003
Conservative Political Theology and the Freedom of Religion: The Recent Work of Robert Kraynak and David Novak
Allan Arkush is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and History at Binghamton University. He is the author of Moses Mendelssohn and the Enlightenment (SUNY, 1994) and numerous articles on modern Jewish thought and Zionism. He can be reached at aarkush@binghamton.edu.
Allan Arkush1
1Binghamton University
Abstract
The Catholic political scientist Robert Kraynak and the Jewish scholar David Novak have recently written extended essays in political theology designed to remedy the deficiencies of liberal democracy. Kraynak seeks to demonstrate the superiority of the Augustinian doctrine of Two Cities to the inherently corrupting principles of liberalism. This medieval teaching underlies his support for what he calls "limited government under God." Novak seeks to ground what he considers to be the acceptable aspects of liberal democracy in "the uniquely Jewish covenantal theocracy." Both men are tactical allies of the currently prevailing political order, to which they lend qualified support for more or less prudential reasons. Both have developed political theories that leave the idea of freedom of religion without any solid foundation.
Keywords:
Two Cities, covenantal rights, Augustine, freedom of religion, Robert Kraynak, David Novak
