A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: With “On My Religion”

by John Rawls, Thomas Nagel (Editor), Joshua Cohen (Introduction)

John Rawls never published anything about his own religious beliefs, but after his death two texts were discovered which shed extraordinary light on the subject. A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith is Rawls’s undergraduate senior thesis, submitted in December 1942, just before he entered the army. At that time Rawls was deeply religious; the thesis is a significant work of theological ethics, of interest both in itself and because of its relation to his mature writings. “On My Religion,” a short statement drafted in 1997, describes the history of his religious beliefs and attitudes toward religion, including his abandonment of orthodoxy during World War II.

The present volume includes these two texts, together with an Introduction by Joshua Cohen and Thomas Nagel, which discusses their relation to Rawls’s published work, and an essay by Robert Merrihew Adams, which places the thesis in its theological context.

The texts display the profound engagement with religion that forms the background of Rawls’s later views on the importance of separating religion and politics. Moreover, the moral and social convictions that the thesis expresses in religious form are related in illuminating ways to the central ideas of Rawls’s later writings. His notions of sin, faith, and community are simultaneously moral and theological, and prefigure the moral outlook found in Theory of Justice.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2009

About the author

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard. His magnum opus A Theory of Justice (1971) is now regarded as "one of the primary texts in political philosophy." His work in political philosophy, dubbed Rawlsianism, takes as its starting point the argument that "most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position." Rawls employs a number of thought experiments—including the famous veil of ignorance—to determine what constitutes a fair agreement in which "everyone is impartially situated as equals," in order to determine principles of social justice.

Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter presented by President Bill Clinton, in recognition of how Rawls's thought "helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself."

Reviews

[Micah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sin : to disobey God
Faith : to be a CHRISTIAN

How's that for "brief"?

[Casey Nicholson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book by the esteemed 20th Century political philosopher John Rawls was published posthumously in 2009. The work is actually Rawls's senior thesis written for his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1942. Rawls was a prodigy who graduated a year ahead of his class, and this work demonstrates his ability.

The book is most rightly understood as a work of theology, and it is fairly accurate to consider it a work in Neo-orthodoxy in the style of Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. Rawls quotes Brunner extensively and acknowledges him as his theologian of choice in the introduction. The young Rawls sounds a bit like a fundamentalist at points in the thesis--his set of personal beliefs about the Christian faith at this point in his life are overtly traditional and orthodox. And yet the work itself is a reenvisioning of soteriology with implications for ecclesiology. Rawls is overtly critical of Augustine and Aquinas, who he considers to be beholden to Greek metaphysics in the style of Plato and Aristotle. After making his pitch for this critique, he constructs a new way of comprehending both sin and faith which are centered around the individual human being's relationship to community. He never explicitly calls this community the "Church", but it's hard to read the work without understanding his argument to be ecclesiological in nature.

Of interest to those intrigued by the overlap of this work and Rawls's mature political philosophy, it's worth noting that the theological anthropology laid out here is one in which individual subjects are seen as autonomous beings with their own souls, and yet Rawls argues for a normative ethics that directs the individual toward life in community. Indeed, he is overt in saying that an individual does not truly become a person without engaging in community with other individuals. This is commensurate with Rawls's later thought in which he argues for a liberal anthropology of the human subject who is bound by communitarian normative ethics.

What is truly remarkable about this work is the depth of scholarship and comprehension of a various philosophers and theologians. The young Rawls seems as competent on theology at 21 as one might expect a doctoral student to be in most departments. The book is a pleasure to read even if you disagree with the overall argument that Rawls makes, as its scholarship lends itself to making for good pleasure reading for the professional student, philosopher, theologian or clergyman.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may not have been paying enough attention -- this book publishes Rawls' undergraduate senior thesis at Princeton, which is not really of general interest and should not have been published, at least with this level of publicity. Prefatory essays drawing links between the thesis -- which draws on the work of Emil Brunner and other then-contemporary theologians -- and Rawls' mature work are interesting. A short piece written by Rawls toward the end of his life discussing his departure from religious orthodoxy concludes the book, and that is also interesting.

[The American Conservative]

'This book reproduces Rawls’s senior thesis, discovered by chance in the Princeton library shortly after his death, together with excellent interpretive essays by Robert Merrihew Adams and Joshua Cohen, and Thomas Nagel. Rawls submitted the thesis in December 1942 and earned a grade of 98 out of 100. I’m not surprised: it’s a blazingly original and ambitious work, all the more remarkable considering Rawls was just 21 when he wrote it.'

Read the full review, "Rawls at the Crossroads," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Sarah Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh John Rawls. You know you're cool when people actually want to go back and read your undergraduate senior thesis. Nice thing to read right before I start mine this spring. :P

[Lauren Henry]

seen on table in 01.02, other episodes