The Task of Theological Humanism
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political norms are powerless and lack social validity. The rise of democratic nations seems to mean the inevitable destruction of ideals beyond bare political social and political discourse is not only to meet the usual demands of polit-equality, especially ideals about human excellence. (^6) The task of
ical life, say, the creation and distribution of power. The more basic challenge is to articulate the moral substance of a people in order to warrant and sustain political action.This vision of the relation between morality and political existence is 7
apparent in the American context. Like all previous presidents, George W. Bush, in his Second Inaugural Address, made repeated references to “the American heritage.” Conservative evangelical Christians insist on “Christian values” as the backbone of the nation. There is also constant appeal to the
vision of the Founding Fathers. The articulation of moral substance can and must motivate and direct political policy. More recently, a host of thinkers, such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Stanley Hauerwas, and others, have been called “the new traditionalists.” (^8) In their attack on political liberalism, new tradi-
tionalists, much like conservatives in the White House and evangelical Christians, appeal to some “tradition” or moral substance that should guide communal life, political or religious.Conservatives rarely note that the articulation of the “moral substance”
of the nation is in many respects the product, not the cause, of the political founding of the United States in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution or the Church in the story of Christ. Those who appeal to “Christian values” forget to note how those “values” have always been con-
tested, especially among Christians. The precise character of the Founders’ ideas about religion and statecraft remains in dispute. However one wants to assess the content of these political and moral outlooks, they manifest the belief that the political order must draw its sustenance and vitality from
some moral substance. The debate is about the content of that substance and how to articulate its meaning for political existence. That is why there is considerable ranker over, say, the meaning of marriage or family values and public policy.
square.” Substantive moral and religious commitments have been banished from public discourse. The reason for this banishment is a specific liberal interpretation of the separation of Church and State and also the general Those who worry about moral substance bemoan the “naked public
inarticulateness of citizens about their moral heritage. In the face of this challenge, neoconservatives in the United States have set about rethinking the separation of Church and State and also the “free exercise” clause in the