cover image RELIGION IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE: Living with Our Deepest Differences

RELIGION IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE: Living with Our Deepest Differences

Azizah Y. al-Hibri, ; intro. by Os Guiness. . Norton, $13.95 (205pp) ISBN 978-0-393-32206-4

At a time when we are bombarded with "reality" TV and Jerry Springer as models of civic engagement, and when conflicts are increasingly litigated rather than discussed, forums in which diverse Americans seek common purpose deserve special celebration. This book represents one such forum—the background papers, final report and call to action of the American Assembly's second gathering, which was dedicated to the role of religion in American public life. For three days, leaders from many sectors and faith-based organizations worked together on policies and actions concerning religion's intersection with education, social services, the media and other arenas. And yet, as the book's subtitle suggests, this religiously diverse gathering did not achieve consensus on intractable matters of religion and conscience. Indeed, the assembly was not one of believers but of citizens, and rather than arriving at interfaith or ecumenical agreement, it provided a model—nonviolent and mutually respectful—of civic disagreement. For the late Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray, disagreement among citizens is not common at all but a hard-earned outcome of dialogue. Only when citizens find enough common ground to speak meaningfully to one another can they arrive at true disagreement. This book, and the three-day assembly of which it is the product, represents an invaluable framework for civic disagreement. That the disagreeing citizens are luminary thinkers makes this book a valuable part of the national conversation. (Aug.)