The New Religious Intolerance: Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age

282 Pages·2012·1.04 MB·English

by  Martha C. Nussbaum

The New Religious Intolerance

T h e Ne w
R e l i g i o u s I n t o l e r a n c e
Overcoming the Politics of Fear
in an Anxious Age
Martha C. Nussbaum
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, Eng land
2012
Copyright © 2012 by Martha C. Nussbaum
all rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Nussbaum, Martha Craven, 1947–
The new religious intolerance : overcoming the politics of fear
in an anxious age / Martha C. Nussbaum.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-06590-1 (alk. paper)
1. Freedom of religion. 2. Religious tolerance. 3. Religious
discrimination. 4. Fear—Religious aspects. I. Title.
BL640.N88 2012
201′.723—dc23 2011051712
In memory of Arnold Jacob Wolf
1924–2008

Contents
Preface xi
1. Religion: A Time of Anxiety and Suspicion 1
2. Fear: A Narcissistic Emotion 20
3. First Principles: Equal Respect for Conscience 59
4. The Mote in My Brother’s Eye: Impartiality
and the Examined Life 98
5. Inner Eyes: Respect and the
Sympathetic Imagination 139
6. The Case of Park51 188
7. Overcoming the Politics of Fear 240
Notes 247
Index 269

Anxiety most of all characterizes the human animal. This is perhaps the
most general name for all the vices at a certain mean level of their opera-
tion. It is a kind of cupidity, a kind of fear, a kind of envy, a kind of hate.
Fortunate are they who are even suffi ciently aware of this probl em to
make the smallest efforts to check this dimming preoccupation. . . . The
natural tendency of the human soul is towards the protection of the ego.
iris murdoch, The Black Prince, 1973
I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s freedom of religion, you know?
“cassandra,” a stripper who works at New York Dolls
near ground zero, on the proposed Islamic community
center next door to the strip club