*4.5. Political Dangers in Practice*

Hazony is a binary thinker who presents the reader and political actor with monolithic ideological blocks. The construction of ideological enemies both on a religious and political level especially serves the goal to bring out one's own polarizing binary Weltanschauung. However, neither religious nor political traditions are monolithic buildings without any historical and social context. There are different schools and practices of liberalisms. These also necessitate critique, but there is no monolithic violent liberalism as such 16. One highly dangerous result of rejecting liberalism as such is the nearly complete neglect of the individual and their rights within and against the collective. Hazony's National Conservativism presents us a divinely instituted, hierarchical and gendered structure of the political community. The individual only exists within the framework of the collective, identified with the majority. This is particularly dangerous for women's rights and minority rights, which have been in the center of the struggle for liberal democracies throughout decades.

#### **5. Reflecting the Theo-Political Consequences**

Let us finally reflect some theo-political consequences of National Conservativism as presented by Yoram Hazony. This school of thought and its related international movement are characterized by an entanglement of political and religious actors, which intend to delegitimize liberal democracy, human rights, international cooperation and pluralism in the name of a religiously based political doctrine. It reads the Hebrew Bible as a nationalist vademecum and history as a conflict between empires and national states, the former identified with any Weltanschauung showing universalist tendencies, and a monolithic liberalism in particular.

National Conservativism and Hazony in particular is a prominent example for the significance of debates around sex, gender and family in contemporary theo-political conflicts. Scott (2018) underlines the focus of political conflicts between the secular and the religious on this range of topics from the early 19th century onwards. Already during that era, the conflict line was not in between the secular and the religious, but in between progressive and traditionalist actors within the respective communities and Weltanschauungen. Similarly, this is true for contemporary theo-political conflicts. National Conservativism is not the single representative of a religiously motivated political ideology, but unites traditionalist Jewish and Christian, sometimes even secular, intellectuals against those who are identified as violent imperialists. The focus on the traditional, patriarchal family serves as an essential focal point for the movement.

Within National Conservativism, religion is not an open, inclusive concept, which could serve as an integrating factor for a pluralist society, as suggested by Bellah's civil religion, but the exclusivist marker of the homogenous community called "nation". Calling for the end of institutional separation between politics and religion, the central pillar of a secular-liberal democracy, we observe the return of an institutionalized state religion.

However, who serves whom in this doctrine? Do religious actors use the idea of National Conservativism in order to implement their religious worldview on a political level or do political actors use religious motives and invoke "Judaeo-Christianity" as a bulwark for protecting their power, without any sincere interest in faith?

For the Edmund Burke Foundation, whose founder and president is Hazony, National Conservativism is not a mere academic enterprise. It aims at bringing together political theory and political activism, particularly supporting figures such as Victor Orbán, who famously coined the term "illiberal democracy" (for a first impression see Vormann and Weinman 2020; the most comprehensive and systematic overview is currently given by Sajó et al. 2021) 17. "Illiberal democracy" is the practical implementation of National Conservativism, and National Conservativism is the intellectualized version of "illiberal democracy". As Orbán (2018) points out in a speech at Bálványos Summer Open University, Christian democracy and liberal democracy are contradictions; Christian democracy can only be "illiberal democracy" based on a prioritization of "Christian culture", the rejection of immigration and the focus on the "Christian family model" of father, mother, child.

Applebaum (2020, part. pp. 15–17) critically discusses the role of intellectuals in Europe, supporting the rise of contemporary authoritarian politics, and calls them "clercs", a term coined by Julien Benda in the 1920s. Hazony and his co-fighters within the Edmund Burke Foundation can be summarized in this category. It is a group of Jewish, Christian and a few secular intellectuals who intend to offer a theologically and philosophically justified version of what they call "conservativism", but what is actually in many aspects an anti-democratic, authoritarian enterprise, which silently delegitimizes both liberal democracy as such and religion as a productive, peace-building political force within democratic processes.

National Conservativism does not overcome the definitely existing aspects of violence in some versions of liberalism, but religiously legitimates political authoritarianism at the expense of minority rights, individual freedom and particularly women's rights; women who are widely reduced to reproductive units beyond political power. Nevertheless, National Conservativism and his key thinker Hazony call for a reflection on the relation between nation, state and religion. Are there any inclusive, non-violent forms of nationalism, overcoming religious exclusivism? Palaver (2021), following Henri Bergson, has already suggested the helpful distinction between static and dynamic religions, and supports an open patriotism. This is an important task that both theology and political theory need to commence in an age of rising populism and religiously inspired political extremism. Interestingly, Palaver points to Hans Kohn's distinction between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism and his warnings of abusing essential Jewish concepts such as "chosen people" for a fierce nationalism, which is not tempered anymore by ethics and universalism. The same Buber-student Hans Kohn is criticized by Hazony (2000, pp. 212, 249) as representative of Jewish anti-Zionism.

National Conservativism is one voice within the rising front of theo-political networks fostering authoritarianism. They are attractive, because they touch hot issues within our current crises, i.a., the growth of pluralism, rising migration, the decline of traditional institutional religions, the shattering of established gender roles and family structures, and the loss of trust in liberal democracy. Theologians and political theorists are called to pay attention to the abyss that is re-opened again by National Conservativism and its fore-thinker Hazony. On a theoretical level, academia needs to reflect sincerely what a "good nationalism" in accordance with democracy could look like, especially with regard to the ever-present plurality in political communities and the quest for human flourishing in equality and freedom. Special attention has to be given to the role of religion and religious actors within this process. What is the persistent political contribution of religious actors in a fragmented world, resisting the seduction of identifying with one political doctrine? With exclusivist, ethnocentric schools showing anti-democratic, authoritarian sympathies?

Hazony's National Conservativism displays many serious problems of the contemporary entanglements of politics and religion, but can hardly serve as a solution. In contrast, as pointed out, in addition to its highly problematic (mis-)readings of religion, history and philosophy, it will lead to deeper struggles, theo-politically fostering new waves of exclusion and violence. Especially with regard to minority rights, women's rights and the role given to equality as an essential principle of democracy, National Conservativism raises serious questions whether it is still compatible with the basic outlines of a democratic political system.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

## **Notes**


increasingly spreading his networks in Europe too. Dreher and the Danube Institute, which hosted him in Budapest, are closely affiliated with the Edmund Burke Foundation and National Conservativism. The Danube Institute was one of the sponsors of the 2020 National Conservativism Conference in Rome. Dreher himself is a regularly invited speaker at National Conservativism Conferences (as is Orbán), e.g., in Florida 2021, where he spoke on "What Conservatives Must Learn from Orbán's Hungary" (Dreher 2021).


has contextualized the social teaching of John Paul II within the historical context of his pontificate. Admirand (2012) summarizes his legacy in intra- and interreligious dialogue.


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