Civil Religious Pluralism as Political Philosophy: Insights from Nurcholish Madjid

How can various religious traditions interact with the state and how can they engage with each other? Kyle Wisdom addresses this question via a dialog between the Muslim Indonesian philosopher Nurcholish Madjid and classical Western political philosophy. Rather than accept a classical liberal position, Kyle Wisdom proposes Civil Religious Pluralism as a contribution to political philosophy. To develop this argument the author engages with three ideal types from Western political theory to show how the negotiation of authority has developed. The argument for civil religious pluralism engages with classical theorists like Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza and Rousseau; contemporary philosophers like Charles Taylor, Ronald Beiner, and John Rawls; as well as Islamic scholars like Maududi, Abdolkarim Soroush, Fazlur Rahman, and Nurcholish Madjid. The author uses concepts and texts from these various writers to make his case following integrated themes that compare diverse approaches to political issues. Following themes of selfhood and identity, moral orders and social imaginaries, civil society and pluralism, and the administration of justice, the book proposes a robust engagement between traditions of all kinds which must necessarily inform the state.