Today on Kresta - November 4, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on Nov. 4

Post midterm election special: What is the role of government in society, in the Church, in our lives?

4:00 – Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life
Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. He is with us.

4:20 – The Contested Public Square: The Crisis of Christianity and Politics
While many assume that the question of Christian involvement in politics is a recent one, Dr. Greg Forster traces the 2,000-year history of Christian thinking on the place of religion and politics—the story of how we got to where we are now—a philosophical tradition going back to the ancient Greeks. He locates the origins of this story in the faith's first three centuries, when believers faced persecution, making the church suspicious of political power. Even after Christianity was established as the religion of the state, this initial experience with persecution continued to influence Christian thinking about the relationship between the church and political institutions. Greg joins us.

5:00 – Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life
Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver. He is with us.

5:20 – The Limits of Liberal Democracy: Politics and Religion at the End of Modernity
Exploring the question of the place of religion in the modern nation-state, Scott H. Moore observes that the easy alliance between the modern liberal democracy and Christian faith in particular is showing some serious stress fractures. He offers an incisive analysis of the ways government, operating according to the ideals of a liberal democracy, has encroached on religious freedom and how the church, of both liberal and conservative leanings, has largely acquiesced. Moore offers a bracing critique of the limits of liberal democracy that calls for and points the way toward a more faithful engagement of Christians with public life--a participation that takes seriously the reality of the Christian church and both the private and public moral teachings of its Scriptures.