Daniel Philpott

University of Notre Dame

I am Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. I earned a Ph.D. in 1996 from Harvard University and specialize in religion and global politics, focusing on religious freedom, reconciliation, the political behavior of religious actors, and Christian political theology. My books include Revolutions in Sovereignty (Princeton, 2001), God’s Century: Resurgent Religion in Global Politics (Norton, 2011, coauthored with Monica Duffy Toft and Timothy Samuel Shah), Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Oxford, 2012) and Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World (Oxford, 2019). Currently I am writing a book that sets forth a political theology based on a Christian concept of justice. I have promoted reconciliation as an activist in Kashmir, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and the Catholic Church with respect to clergy abuse. I am a Lay Dominican .

Blog: Arc of the Universe (click here to go to site)

Arc of the Universe is a blog about justice. It was launched in 2014, reconfigured in 2022, and is authored by Daniel Philpott at the University of Notre Dame. The blog is written from the standpoint of a Christian concept of justice rooted in the Bible, shaped by the tradition of the Catholic Church, and informed by other Christian and religious traditions. It contends that justice in the Bible means comprehensive right relationship and is wider than, though inclusive of, the constant will to render another his due, the notion that now dominates modern nation-states. Retrieved, biblical justice contains great promise for the renewal of modern societies.

The pictures on the home page exemplify the blog’s theme. One is Jacques Maritain, the 20th century Catholic philosopher who retrieved the thought of Thomas Aquinas to defend human rights, the common good, democracy, international community, and a personalist economics in the context of modern nation-states. Another is Mother Theresa, who defended the most vulnerable human persons on the basis of her faith. Pope St. John Paul II was a great witness for justice, defending human dignity and religious freedom against communist states, human life in modern societies, and an approach to social justice shaped by mercy and reconciliation. The other picture shows former Notre Dame President Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. marching with Martin Luther King in 1964. Fr. Hesburgh is just to the left of King in the photo. The picture conveys the blog’s commitment to Notre Dame’s mission to promote justice, rooted in its Catholic character. The blog’s title is borrowed from Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “the arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.”

Daniel Philpott’s website is here.

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of Daniel Philpott and other authors. None express the view of the University of Notre Dame.

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