Series: Jonathan Rauch and the Liberal Seduction of Christianity (4 parts)

Part III: A New Political Theology of "Agency?"

Rauch presents his proposal for his “Gospel of Compromise,” we have noted, as a recovery of a “thick Christianity,” as opposed, that is, to the “sharp,” that is, conservatively accented version. He regards his favored version as “thick” because he thinks it offers a way of reconciling human and divine law (95), a way of seeing liberalism’s “permanent process of public negotiation” as a core value of Christianity. Clearly, by “thick theology” Rauch does not mean a body of belief that richly defines the meaning of human life and community with reference to eternal purpose. In fact, he means almost the opposite: the more a religious worldview is amenable to alliance – forgive me, “alignment” – with liberalism, the “thicker” it is for Jonathan Rauch.

It is in this context that Rauch offers his surprising proposal that the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offer the most perfect specimen of the “thick theology” he is looking for. (He observes that he “felt a friss…