Liberalism as Worldview and Competing Gospel

"It is in this sense that we must appreciate the way that liberalism is a worldview and therefore fundamentally religious (or theological1) – and therefore a gospel competing with the gospel of Christ. John Owen is helpfully forthright in describing liberalism in these terms: ‘Liberalism is first a worldview, a set of fundamental categories through which individuals understand themselves and the world. It thus shapes individuals’ conceptions of their identities and interests by telling them of what human nature and the good consist’ (John Owen IV, Liberal Peace, Liberal War [Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997], 19)."


James K.A. Smith, Introducing Radical Orthodoxy, p. 250