Relativism and Religion

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).

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! -- Patrick Weil, Yale University 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. -- Maria Pia Lara, author of The Disclosure of Politics: Struggles Over the Semantics of Secularization 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. -- Justine Lacroix, Universite Libre de Bruxelles Relativism and Religion offers a lucid and creative reinterpretation of Hans Kelsen's still neglected democratic theory. -- Jan-Werner Mueller, author of Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe 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. -- Nadia Urbinati, Columbia University

• Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Discourse of Anti-Relativism in the Political Thought of the Catholic Church 2. Elements for a Public Critique of the Catholic Discourse of Anti-Relativism 3. Rationalism: Between Relativism and Religion 4. Defense of a Relativist Conception of Democracy Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index