The decay of Western liberalism and the Christological alternative

Abstract

Recent election results across the Western world have seen the resurgence of authoritarian and nativist forms of politics. Key shibboleths of liberal democracy have come under fierce attack from burgeoning populist movements. Calls for a return to homogenous national identities and firm lines of cultural belonging increasingly eclipse values of social openness, pluralism and multiculturalism. In such a febrile atmosphere, it might be legitimate to ask, is Western liberalism in a state of decay? And if so, how should Christian communities respond to such a development? Drawing constructively on the work of Karl Barth and E.M Forster, this article argues that the fragmentation of liberal values risks making secular culture less receptive to the distinctive summons of the Christian message. Chiefly imperilled by such disintegration is the pedagogical capacity of political liberalism to sensitise otherwise secular citizens to notions of universal community, which lie at the centre of the Gospel's subversive social imaginary. In a world where ‘nation’ and ‘ethnicity’ are again compelling rivals for the West's civic affections, liberal politics must recover a public creed which grounds the language of liberty in a robust account of community, friendship and care.