In the excerpt of his new book that ran in NR, Jonah Goldberg builds his case for classical liberalism on the back of the Bible, repeatedly denigrating the contribution of real religion – as opposed to religious institutions – to liberal democracy. Goldberg wants to reap the social benefits of religious institutions without getting any trouble from that pesky God, who creates so many problems.

This is a classic example of bending over so far backward to avoid one error that you fall into another. Goldberg is anxious to discredit claims that classical liberalism is simply and solely the development of a single, specific religious/cultural construct (whichever one you prefer – many claimants have been advanced as the “real” cause of liberalism). It is true that liberalism is not identical with any one particular religious/cultural construct. But Goldberg is so anxious to deconstruct this kind of thinking that he falls very deep into the opposite error, which is that liberalism does not come from religious or cultural roots at all, in any way.

I get the strategy here; Goldberg is trying to position liberalism to survive in a world ruled by secularists. But insofar as he succeeds in persuading secularists to embrace this account, he will save liberalism by helping entrench secularism – which will, contra Goldberg’s explicit assertions, kill liberalism.