TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract This chapter offers a speculative essay regarding how religion may foster intellectual humility in public life, drawing on case studies from faith-based community organizing in the United States. and liberation theology in Latin America. Despite a plethora of religious teaching about the virtue of humility across a variety of traditions, I do not think there is anything inherent in religious belief – in any tradition – that predisposes believers toward authentic humility in their personal or public lives. I argue instead that religious conviction – when embodied in particular kinds of religious practice – does help drive us toward the balance of confidence and intellectual humility required for vigorous engagement in democratic public life. My argument draws on the concept of focal practices and insights from philosophy, theology, and social theory as I consider religious practices, religious conversion, and the nature of human passions as they relate to democratic life.
VL  - 36
SN  - 978-1-78973-949-7, 978-1-78973-950-3/0198-8719
DO  - 10.1108/S0198-871920190000036007
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920190000036007
AU  - Wood Richard L.
PY  - 2019
Y1  - 2019/01/01
TI  - Passion and Virtue in Public Life: Focal Practices and the Political Holiness the World Needs☆
T2  - Religion, Humility, and Democracy in a Divided America
T3  - Political Power and Social Theory
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 123
EP  - 149
Y2  - 2024/04/20
ER  -