Reason and Faith: Questions of Political Theology

Catalog description

When you first came to Stanford, you may have come from a household in which religious observance played a role, or you may have had friends in high school who identified with faith communities. You or your friends may have wondered how to navigate between religious backgrounds and entering a university where primacy is placed on the secular pursuit of knowledge. While there are opportunities to find religious affiliations at Stanford, the challenge of navigating between faith and reason, or between religion and science, is not new. This tension sits at the foundation of Western philosophy. In this Sophomore College seminar, we will explore it through an encounter with the writings of the philosopher Leo Strauss, a German Jewish thinker who fled Nazi Germany and later contributed significantly to political philosophy in the United States. Strauss is especially known for his analysis of the enduring conflict between reason and revelation. He places this question of philosophy and religion in relation to our core challenge of how to live together with laws, governance, and authority. This field of study is "political theology," which means how religious ideas and traditions shape political structures. We will read several of Strauss's key texts, such as "Athens and Jerusalem," "What Is Political Philosophy?" and "Progress or Return?" These works will be framed by adjacent texts that illuminate the same problem from different perspectives, including Plato's Euthyphro, Sophocles' Antigone, and Pope Benedict XVI's "Regensburg Address." Together, these readings invite students to think carefully about the limits of reason, the claims of faith, and the tensions that arise when philosophical inquiry confronts religious commitment. In addition to these core texts, you will read some fiction, including Marilyn Robinson's Gilead as summer reading to set the stage. It presents a…