Jewish Public Forum Archive
Welcome to the
Jewish Public Forum Archive, where you will find materials
published under the auspices of the Jewish Public Forum, including articles by, and
interviews with, Forum participants.
For more information about the Jewish Public Forum, click here.
To access the Jewish Public Forum Archive, click here.
“Can Religion Save Politics? Can Politics
Save Religion?”
A Roundtable with Rabbi Tsvi Blanchard,
Ph.D., Shari Cohen, Ph.D., and Michael Gottsegen, Ph.D
Introduction
The nomination of Joseph Lieberman for
vice president and George Bush’s commitment to faith-based social services have
provoked a new round of heated discussions over the role of religion in public life. These
debates have revolved primarily around the long-standing divide over shoring up, versus
tearing down, the legal wall of separation between church and state. Secondarily, they have focused on the necessity of
reinvigorating religious and political institutions, which many see as dangerously
weakened.
These essays emerged out of a pre-election roundtable discussion
sponsored by the Jewish Public Forum at CLAL. This discussion sought to go beyond
considering the battles over the First Amendment—such as those fought in court cases
about school prayer or public menorahs—or making calls for increasing civic
participation and membership in religious institutions.
The premise of the roundtable was that the issues at stake in thinking about the
future of religion and public life are not merely legalistic or organizational. Rather, it is necessary to frame the conversation
in a broader context. We need to investigate how people are forming loyalties to purposes
beyond themselves and their families in new ways, and how the functions and meanings of
the political and religious realms are changing. A globalized economy, the pervasiveness
of high-tech media, revolutions in biological and medical science, corporate influence
over electoral politics: all of these change how we experience ourselves in relation to
communities large and small. All of these
will change how American Jews experience themselves as Jews, as Americans, as voters and
congregants, and, for that matter, as workers, consumers, family members, and so on.
The essays that follow seek to offer insight into such issues.
In “Markets and More,” Shari Cohen explores the extent to which the market has begun to take over some of the meaning-making functions of both religion and politics. What, she asks, are the implications when citizens and congregants seem to be transforming into customers and employees?
In “Language of Hope,” Tsvi Blanchard suggests that religious language might in fact provide a powerful tool for making political life more meaningful. When it is “translated” into political discourse so as to be fully constitutional and inclusive, he argues, religious language can engender new kinds of conversations about social and political possibility.
In “After the Church-State Divide,”
Michael Gottsegen asks, finally, whether we might be entering a period of
“resynthesis” of religion and politics. We need to put the split between the
religious and the political spheres into historical perspective, he argues, in order to
understand the potential promise and pitfalls of keeping these arenas separate, as well as
of letting them overlap.
To join the conversation at Jewish Public Forum Talk, click here.
To access the Jewish Public Forum Archive, click here.To receive Jewish Public Forum columns by email on a regular basis, complete the box below:
