In recent years religion has asserted itself as a major factor in the politics of our nation and around the world. In the United States, the conversation about religion and politics has increasingly been framed around the question of the power of the Religious Right, or as a struggle pitting personal moral values against moral values that seek to serve a public good.

As we considered the topic at YDS, we came to see how useful it would be to frame the issues involved in a fresh way, by examining the relationship between our identity as people of faith and as citizens. This is not simply an American question but a matter that requires a global perspective as well.

This issue of Reflections is, in part, an outgrowth of several initiatives and conferences over the last year that have attempted to engage this conversation. One such effort was the conference in May on "Faith and Citizenship" featuring Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne. A portion of his address appears in this issue of Reflections . Dionne ended his conference address by declaring that, "We are destined to visit, over and over, the relationship between religion and our aspirations to pluralism, freedom, justice and democracy. Only by doing so will we be able to respect the serious moral commitments of believers and unbelievers alike." As the world becomes more and more interconnected, the need to revisit these tensions between religious and other allegiances grows more urgent.

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