Why politics needs religion : the place of religious arguments in the public square / Brendan Sweetman.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-252) and index.

Introduction: a new perspective on religion and politics -- Understanding worldviews -- Worldviews : the center and the outer edges -- Two major worldviews in contemporary America -- The formal structure of a worldview -- Worldviews and faith -- The rationality of worldviews -- Worldviews and religion -- Foundational and nonfoundational beliefs -- Lower-order and higher-order beliefs -- Promoting our worldview : belief, action and ritual -- The worldview of secularism -- Secularism today -- Secularism, politics and seculocracy -- The influence of secularism on religion -- Secularism as a worldview -- Secularism as a religion -- Religious beliefs and reason -- What does it mean to describe a belief as "religious"? -- Reason as a source of religious beliefs -- The rationality of religious belief -- Introducing reasonable religious beliefs into politics -- How should we handle reasonable disagreements? -- Keeping religion out of politics I -- Religious beliefs should be excluded because they are "religious" -- Traditional religious beliefs cannot be based on reason and evidence -- "Secular reason" does not imply secularism -- Secularism can better achieve overall agreement among worldviews -- Keeping religion out of politics II -- Most religious beliefs are higher-order beliefs, and so should be kept private -- Religion is dangerous, secularism is benign -- Religious beliefs should not be forced by law on those who do not think they are true -- Religious views should be excluded according to the U.S. constitution -- Rawls, religion and democracy -- Arguing from within our worldview -- John Rawls's political liberalism -- Problems with Rawls's theory -- Religion and democracy -- The principle of religious freedom -- Religion in politics -- Introducing lower-order, rational beliefs into public arguments -- A seculocracy for a secularist people? -- Some practical applications -- The relationship between church and state -- A fictional example : form and content -- Looking at the world upside down : on revising our terminology -- Pluralism, relativism and religious debates : American style -- American pluralism -- School prayer -- Display of traditional religious symbols in public places -- Religion and moral issues : the euthanasia debate in Oregon -- Moral relativism in American culture -- The problems with relativism -- The rhetoric of relativism -- Tolerance : traditional and contemporary meanings.