Faiths & Globalisation Initiative

On Friday, December 2^nd, Tony Blair and Senator John Kerry (D-MA) sat in on Professor Miroslav Volf’s “Faith & Globalisation” class at Yale University. The topic of the class, “Religion and Liberal Democracy” proved to be the perfect spring board for a lively discussion between two politicians (one current, one former) about the role of religion in US, UK and nascent democracies in North Africa and the Middle East.

The discussion, live streamed on the internet, could not have occurred at a more appropriate time (though it is hard to imagine a time in which the topic would not be appropriate). With religion playing a major role in the current Republican Party presidential primary in the United States, the Occupy protests at St. Paul’s Cathedral here in London, and in recent elections in Egypt, the issue has been receiving an enormous amount of implicit media coverage. I say “implicit” because while the role of religion in each of these situations has indeed been noticed and partially, albeit sensationally, addressed by the media and other public figures, there have been few conversations that looked at the global phenomenon of religion’s influence in democracies writ large.

Yale’s Faith & Globalisation class provided the perfect setting for just such a conversation.

Following introductory remarks from Prof Volf, Senator Kerry began his lecture by presenting a history of the United States that took into account the importance of religion and religious disputes. Linking the expansion of the American colonies to internal disputes between different Christian factions led by the likes of Roger Williams and Thomas Hooker, Kerry argued that the struggle to determine the appropriate role of religion in government has always been a central feature of the American political experience.

Tony Blair then took the podium to look at religion in Western-style democracies in comparison with the current situation in the wake of the Arab Spring. Mr Blair, following the lines of Senator Kerry’s lecture, pointed out that in Europe too, the role of religion in governments and democracies has had a long and contentious past – one which is still in fact being worked out today. So, he said, we should not be surprised that countries like Egypt and Tunisia are undergoing similar struggles in the early stages of the democratic political process. But Mr. Blair also noted that, thanks to the lengthy and difficult history of Western democracies in grappling with this issue, these governments have useful and important knowledge that could help new democracies deal with their current questions and debates.  The goal, Tony Blair stated, is to establish “faith-friendly democracies and democracy-friendly faiths.”

These questions will not be settled any time soon. No matter what happens in the USA or Egypt, religion’s role in liberal democracies will be an issue that we must continuously work out for ourselves. But discussions like this are an essential step in establishing an informed populace and in determining a framework in which democracy and religion can exist in a symbiotic, and not mutually destructive, relationship.

Drew Collins

If you missed the live stream you can still watch the recording of Tony Blair and John Kerry on our website.