Book Review: Can Religion Save Democracy by Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid

Valuable Discourse. Kaemingk and Hamid never set out to declare any absolute that any religion - Christianity, Islam, State/ Reason/ Logic/ Science, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other - can definitively make democracy better. Instead, the main thrust of the argument here is that by more openly discussing all religions and religious view points (rather than just the State or society's preferred one or few), we can return to a more genuinely pluralistic society where all views are held in civil tension and debate rather than having a singular viewpoint for all of society that is deemed "acceptable" in the public sphere.

Indeed, by learning to see the humanity in each other despite our religious differences, we can begin to appreciate the same humanity despite our political differences, essentially.

But even more than this, in some ways religious views actually temper at least some societal urges. Specifically, a chapter is devoted to the idea that a belief in the afterlife - common in many religions, though certainly far from all of them - can help quell the *NEED* for "justice" (more really: retribution) in the here and now and thus allow us to more calmly examine everything from capital punishment to war to cancel culture and so much more. Another chapter is devoted to the idea that if we more proactively acknowledge the tensions between various claims of religious truth, that helps us see that perhaps no one Party has an absolute claim on truth either. These and several more help establish a discourse rather than providing a definitive claim, and the discourse here is both desperately needed and quite intriguing indeed.

This is one of those books that will absolutely get a lot of pushback from a lot of different sides, and both Kaemingk and Hamid seem to both expect and appreciate this. To my mind, they have set this up well in insisting that they are only seeking discussion and discourse, not a formal declaration of being THE WAY, and this makes the ideas presented here - and the fact that as a Christian (Kaemingk) and Muslim (Hamid), they have taken great pains to show the various ways each of these religions specifically approaches these ideas from at least some viewpoints within them. While openly acknowledging that both religions have *many* different strains of thought among them and that even in these discussions, these all adherents to these religions don't necessarily hold any of the views discussed here.

Hell, the *one* criticism I have here (beyond a *touch* short bibliography, clocking in at 14% compared to my generally expected 15%) is the rampant use of prooftexting, in this case from both the Bible *and* the Koran, which is always an automatic one star deduction from me in my own personal war against the practice.

Overall a great, thought provoking read that can add quite a bit to the overall discussion of all issues in the US and even globally, and one that should be read much more widely than it most likely will be.

Once again I ask that if I have convinced you to read this book, please do write your own review wherever you found this one and let us all know your own thoughts on the text here.

Very much recommended.

This review of Can Religion Save Democracy by Matthew Kaemingk and Shadi Hamid was originally written on October 3, 2026.