What Post-Liberals Get Wrong about American Religious History

Intellectual debates on the right over the place of illiberal policy in the conservative political coalition have recently taken on a religious tone as Catholics and Protestants both stake out the limits of their traditions regarding liberalism’s influence. Andrew Walker, a professor at the flagship seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention, noted that while he criticized the direction recently taken by liberal democracy, he was not a post-liberal. Patrick Deneen, a professor at Notre Dame, argued that it was "Catholic post-liberals who are reminding Protestants of the existence in America of state establishments, Sabbath laws, obscenity laws, and the like." The Protestant response, according to Deneen, was "to appeal to a fictionalized American founding in which we have always been Millians."