The Naked Public Square

For $ 1 in a clearance bin I found a signed copy of Richard John Neuhaus' famous 1986 book The Naked Public Square: Religion and Democracy in America (2d. ed.). This is one of those books I had seen cited hundreds of time in legal scholarship on religious freedom but hadn't actually read until now, though I enjoyed reading (and completely disagreeing with) Neuhaus' work in First Things until his recent death.

The central thesis of the book is that liberal democracies cannot survive with a "public square" (i.e., public debate and discourse about political and social issues) that is divorced from religion. According to Neuhaus, the shared conception of morality and values is what binds disparate people together and provides legitimacy to the results of the democratic process. In the absence of this shared morality, something else will step in to fill the void: the state as a totalitarian project.

I think what I like most about the book is that Neuhaus really strives to be fair. The book is not a polemic against liberalism and Neuhaus has a great sense of the internal debates that go on within liberalism, fundamentalism, and mainstream Christianity. The book is also deeper and more encompassing than you might think from citations made to it: it's as much a warning about the rise of the "new religious right" as it is about secularism.

It's definitely worth reading, even if you can't find it for a buck. The only disclaimer I'll make is that some chapters show an ugly anti-gay sentiment and (from my post-Cold War perspective) a surprising paranoia about Communism.