Relativism and Religion

For theorists in search of a political theology that is more responsive to the challenges now facing Western democracies, this book tenders a new political economy anchored in a theory of value. The political theology of the future, Carl Raschke argues, must draw on a powerful, hidden impetus—the "force of God"—to frame a new value economy. It must also embrace a radical, "faith-based" revolutionary style of theory that reconceives the power of the "theological" in political thought and action.

Traces the roots of contemporary anti-relativist fears to the antimodern rhetoric of the Catholic Church and rescues a form of philosophical relativism for modern, pluralist societies.

Carlo Invernizzi Accetti is an assistant professor of political theory at City College, City University of New York, and an associate researcher at the Center for European Studies of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University:
A courageous and truly original contribution to the study of democracy as a society that is structurally based on opinions that citizens form in their free and open exchange of their political and moral judgments and decisions. This makes democracy not easily welcomed by supporters of absolute visions of truth, religious or otherwise. Accetti shows very convincingly how the call for the reassertion of a reference to a notion of absolute truth in contemporary politics constitutes one of the most resilient expressions of the resistance against the democratic principle of self-government from within democratic societies.

Jan-Werner Mueller, author of Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe:
Relativism and Religion offers a lucid and creative reinterpretation of Hans Kelsen's still neglected democratic theory.

Justine Lacroix, Université Libre de Bruxelles:
An important and timely book that provides an outstandingly well-researched reconstruction of the history of the religious discourse of anti-relativism, and then advances a bold and original response, defending relativism as the most adequate philosophical foundation for democracy. The scholarship is impeccable and the argument is both challenging and persuasive: it will become a reference point.

María Pía Lara, author of The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization:
An original and bold argument that offers a compelling and critical account of how particular religious institutions aim to impose their views on politics by using the 'authority' of religious beliefs. It sheds light on our present debates concerning religion and politics.

Patrick Weil, Yale University:
Since the emergence of democracy in the Western world, the Catholic Church has warned that democracies' association with cultural relativism would lead to a new totalitarianism. In this compelling book, Accetti reveals the origins of this demand for absolute moral and political truths. He defends a challenging point of view: individual moral relativism not only complements but reinforces democracy. Clear and convincing!