Can I read As If God Existed : Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy on EtoBox?

As If God Existed : Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy by MAURIZIO VIROLI, Maurizio Viroli, translated by Alberto Nones is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is As If God Existed : Religion and Liberty in the History of Italy about?

"Religion and liberty are often thought to be mutual enemies: if religion has a natural ally, it is authoritarianism--not republicanism or democracy. But in this book, Maurizio Viroli, a leading historian of republican political thought, challenges this conventional wisdom. He argues that political emancipation and the defense of political liberty have always required the self-sacrifice of people with religious sentiments and a religious devotion to liberty. This is particularly the case when liberty is threatened by authoritarianism: the staunchest defenders of liberty are those who feel a deeply religious commitment to it. Viroli makes his case by reconstructing, for the first time, the history of the Italian 'religion of liberty, ' covering its entire span but focusing on three key examples of political emancipation: the free republics of the late Middle Ages, the Risorgimento of the nineteenth century, and the antifascist Resistenza of the twentieth century. In each example, Viroli shows, a religious spirit that regarded moral and political liberty as the highest goods of human life was fundamental to establishing and preserving liberty. He also shows that when this religious s

Author

MAURIZIO VIROLI, Maurizio Viroli, translated by Alberto Nones

Publisher

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Published

2012

Language

EN

ISBN

9780691142357

Subjects

Political Science, History, Religion