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How, When, and Why Do Religious Actors Use Public Reason? The Case of Assisted Dying in Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2019

Steven Kettell Open the ORCID record for Steven Kettell [Opens in a new window]
Steven Kettell*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Steven Kettell, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The public reason criterion is a prominent theme in contemporary political theory. Yet scholars have focused predominantly on conceptual and normative issues at the expense of empirical questions about the language used by actors engaged in political debate. This is a particular problem in the case of religious actors, whose underlying motives for taking part in such debates are frequently driven by theological concerns. This paper explores these issues by analyzing religious opposition to the legalization of assisted dying in Britain. It shows that religious actors have tended toward the use of secular rather than theological modes of argumentation, and that this is consistent with the idea of a strategic shift in response to the increasingly secularized nature of British society.

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Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 385 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019 

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