Questions
How Does Liberalism View Religion?
Summary: Liberalism tolerates religion by redefining it—privatizing faith into personal preference rather than a public truth-claim—and quietly domesticates religious communities by reshaping adherents’ self-understanding so that they accept a diminished civic role often without recognizing it.
Liberalism’s relationship to religion is structural and philosophical. It tolerates religion, in part, by redefining religion. Privatizing religion allowed liberalism to transform religious faith from a claim about reality into a personal preference. Religion becomes one “option” among others, protected precisely because it is treated as essentially arbitrary. It is a matter of taste that may be exercised privately so long as one’s private opinions do not disrupt or challenge the status quo established by civil authorities.
This dynamic has two important consequences. First, any religion that makes a comprehensive claim on public life is, by liberal logic, a threat. Insisting that one’s religious opinions bear on politics, culture, law, and social order is problematic when it begins to disrupt the civic arena. Liberalism manages religious diversity by requiring all religions to accept a diminished role. It does so most effectively when a given religion does not recognize that it is occupying a diminished role (as we will see with American civil religion).
Second, and more subtly, the liberal framework slowly reshapes religious communities from within. When a religious adherent accepts liberal logic, presents themselves as having made a personal lifestyle choice, and grounds decision making in a secular rather than theological rationale, the adherent has compromised his or her faith. The faith remains, but it is diluted so that it is only exercised within the limits that the state sets.
Liberalism, in short, does not persecute religion so much as it domesticates it.
Key Takeaways: Domestication, Not Persecution
- Redefinition Strategy: Liberalism tolerates religion by recategorizing it from a claim about reality to a personal preference.
- Public Claims as Threat: Religions making comprehensive claims on public life are treated as threats to civic peace, requiring them to accept a diminished public role.
- Internal Reshaping: The liberal framework slowly reshapes religious communities from within—adherents begin grounding decisions in secular rather than theological rationale, often without noticing.
- The “So What”: Liberalism does not persecute religion; it domesticates it—most effectively when the religion does not recognize its own domestication.
About the Author — James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners; he has been quoted in The Telegraph; and he is a regular guest on Stand in the Gap Today with the American Pastors Network. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.