My Liberal Faith: The beginning of wisdom is neither the sum nor the end of it (Bret Stephens, August 12, 2024, Sapir)
What is a liberal faith? There are specifically political ways of addressing that question — that is, faith in a liberal order that puts the protection of individual liberty, conscience, and initiative at the center of its concerns. That’s a faith I share, even if I don’t subscribe to the more common understanding of “liberalism” as a program of big-government responses to economic and social problems.
But what I’m writing about here is something more personal: liberal without the “ism.” This is liberal as an attitude toward life; an openness to new ideas and different ways of being; a readiness to accept doubt, ambiguity, uncertainty, and contradiction; an ability to hold a conviction while occasionally allowing it to be shaken; a right to change your mind and reinvent yourself. It is the belief that, at its best, a liberal faith can be a more honest, interesting, and rewarding approach to life than alternatives based in tradition, dogma, or ideology.