A ideia de uma sociedade cristã, o liberalismo e as duas cidades

In this paper I revisit the relationship between political liberalism and “the idea of aChristian society”, in light of the rekindling of the academic and ideological debateabout the moral and social sanity of contemporary liberalism and about the(in)compatibility between the secular liberal modernity and the values of the JudeoChristian tradition. Firstly, I go back to the historical and conceptual lineage ofliberalism(s). I dwell on Böckenförde's suggestion that the constitutional state is aboveall an order of freedom and peace, in contrast to the old order of truth and virtue,stressing that the liberal democratic order is based on the specificity of political andinstitutional ethics and in the idea of “public reason”. Then, I address the limits, risksand possible contradictions of this conception, with regard to the moral neutrality of theState and to the relationship between statecraft and soulcraft, also taking into accountthe growing evidence of an un-liberal liberalism. I express my conviction that the liberalorder is not self-sufficient: it needs a soul supplement, it needs to talk to somethingoutside it, namely with the classical tradition and the biblical Faith. Finally, I discusswhat is the meaning and the place, in a liberal regime, of “the idea of a Christiansociety”.