ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the source, ground and structure of public reason liberalism and outlines how its schizophrenic attitude toward religion derives from liberalism's theoretical structure. Freedom is the primary concern of the liberal tradition. Liberals assume that persons are naturally free and equal, such that the coercive restriction of freedom by equals requires justification. Public reason liberals holds that the required justification be public, in terms that all can accept. The use of public reasons is governed by the duty of civility. The duty of civility is a moral, not legal, duty to provide public reasons in a public forum and to restrain one's use of comprehensive reasons when constitutional essentials are at stake. The standard public reason approach to religion in public life holds that citizens must refrain from employing religious reasons as bases for political deliberation and decision making, or at least subordinate religious reasoning to secular or shared reasoning.
