Introduction to OJLR Special Issue: The New Catholic Integralism and Religious Anti-Liberalism

To the surprise of many, Catholic integralism has re-emerged and found increasing numbers of advocates in recent years, especially in the USA. Integralism refers to the papacy’s teaching about politics in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, specifically the teachings that regard the subordination of the state to the church as the ideal form of regime to secure earthly and heavenly common goods in society. It is thus deeply hostile to liberalism and to church–state separation. Its contemporary popularisers and proponents include Edmund Waldstein, Adrian Vermeule, Thomas Pink, and Sohrab Ahmari. Integralism has been subject to detailed analysis and critique in Kevin Vallier’s recent book All the Kingdoms of the World: On Radical Religious Alternatives to Liberalism (OUP, 2023). The book examines integralism’s political theology historically, theologically, philosophically, and economically. Vallier seeks to assess integralism by its own lights, rather than simply dismissing it based on liberal presuppositions, thus treating anti-liberal thinkers with a respect and seriousness that liberals seldom afford. He argues that integralists have compelling reasons to abandon their integralism. It is near impossible to transition from current liberal democracies to an integralist regime without serious injustice, and, even if such a regime did obtain, it would both be fatally unstable and act unjustly towards baptised non-Catholics.