Liberal Catholics, American Conservatives

This chapter refers to Garry Wills who expressed that the Second Vatican Council was less about religious freedom than liturgical anarchy. It discusses the reform of the Mass, by which the council launched Roman Catholicism into the agony of lost symbols and debased associations. It also conveys a theology of the sacrament that the council destroyed by introducing vernacular languages, turning the priest around to face the congregation, and placing the communion wafer in the hands of recipients. The chapter discusses liturgical reforms that liberated the priests from the years of theology learned in Latin by rote. It explains the council's reset of the church's outlook on social pluralism and secular politics as a feature that was already evident in American Roman Catholicism.

Kuyper and Reformed Public Theology: Family, Freedom, and Fortune

This Article Introduces And Illustrates The Public Theology Developed By Dutch Theologian, Philosopher, And Statesman Abraham Kuyper At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century. Much Like Pope Leo XIII Transformed Modern Catholicism With A New Social Teaching Movement Grounded In Neo-Thomist Thought, Kuyper Transformed Modern Protestantism With A New Public Theology Grounded In The Reformed Tradition Going Back To John Calvin. Combining Close Biblical And Catechetical Exegesis With Sweeping Theological And Political Doctrines Of The Created Order, Social Pluralism, Covenant Doctrine, And Sphere Sovereignty, Kuyper Defended Traditional Teachings On The Family, Offered Strikingly Modern Theories Of Ordered Liberty And Orderly Pluralism, And Stuck To A Principled But Pragmatic Program On Property, Labor, And Economics. KEYWORDS: Abraham Kuyper, Calvinism, Creation Order, Orderly Pluralism, Family, Freedom, Education, Labor, Property, Social Welfare

Centrism, Political Leadership, and the Future of Indian Politics

Echeverri-Gent and Sadiq investigate the implications of the Rudolphs’ scholarship for the challenges of contemporary Indian politics. They contend that two of the Rudolphs’ most seminal, but contradictory, contributions help explain India’s transformational change under Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance government. The authors apply the Rudolphs’ contentions that India’s social pluralism produces centrist politics and their innovative study of transformational political leadership to the 2014 and 2019 general elections and the NDA government. They show how the multilayered nature of Modi’s political leadership enables the prime minister to accommodate the forces of centrism while transforming India’s political mainstream. They show how the ascendance of Modi has simultaneously positioned the BJP at the centre of India’s political system while transforming Indian democracy in majoritarian and illiberal directions.

Santi Romano and the Juristic Point of View

Chapter title: Santi Romano and the Juristic Point of ViewChapter abstract: This chapter illustrates Romano’s groundbreaking theory by presenting his conceptions of institutionalism and pluralism as coherently glued together. All that is organized is an institution; all institutions are legal entities. No privileged legal entity exists that can claim other entities are not legal. Based on this radical view, Romano’s overall contribution comes down to the conclusion that the only way to make social and political pluralism work is to provide a purely jurisprudential account of it—one that remains within the boundaries of the juristic practice and downplays politics as an ancillary, contextual activity of governing. The chapter then makes the case that Romano intended to put forward a conception of legal theory as a technique of description that is capable of engendering particular social outcomes—as well as effects of domestication and compatibility in so far as social pluralism is concerned.

Costantino Mortati and the Material Constitution

Chapter abstract: The aim of this chapter is twofold. It initially illustrates Mortati’s version of legal institutionalism and then explains how his idea of the material constitution addresses the challenge of pluralism. There are three main parts of the chapter. In the first, the historical context of Mortati’s reflections is briefly introduced. The second part is centered on the main tenets of his legal theory. First, his imperative conception of law and the institutionalist version of the legal order are compared not only with Romano and Schmitt, but also with Smend and Heller. Then, the key notion of the material constitution is reconstructed through an analysis of its function, subjects, and fundamental political aims. The last part of the chapter argues that the concept of the material constitution was conceived as a response to social pluralism and elucidates its undergirding integrative logic.