Can Religion Save Democracy?: How More Faith--Not Less--Can Heal Our Public Life

What Secularism Got Wrong--and How Religion Can Help Set Things Right

"This book is original and profound."--David Brooks, New York Times bestselling author

"Keep religion and politics separate!" For decades, scholars and public intellectuals assumed that less religion would lead to a more peaceful and unified form of politics. The evidence suggests otherwise. As religion has receded from public life, our politics have grown more polarized, anxious, and unstable.

In Can Religion Save Democracy?, two friends and colleagues--a Christian theologian and a Muslim political scientist--make a bold case: If American democracy is going to survive, it will require more religion, not less. Drawing on wisdom from their respective religious traditions, they explore
 
● why secularism has only deepened our divides,
● what ancient insights from Christianity and Islam can strengthen our common life,
● how spiritual practices contribute critical virtues to democratic life, and
● how citizens can navigate a new world of deep polarization and mistrust.

This is not a call for theocracy or religious authoritarianism. It's a hopeful, clear-eyed vision showing how religious faith offers vital tools to renew the soul of democracy in a divided nation.

Matthew Kaemingk (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, professor of public theology at Theological University Utrecht, and founder of the Worship for Workers Initiative. He is the author of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear and the coauthor of Leading Worship for Workers and Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy.

Shadi Hamid (PhD, Oxford University) is a columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is the author of The Problem of Democracy and Islamic Exceptionalism.