Liberalism, nationalism and religion: : Multidimensional autonomy, trade-offs andanalogies

This article aims to provide a conceptual framework forexploring the relations between liberal nationalism and reli-gion. Combining multidimensional analyses of autonomy aswell as religion, the article aims to provide a framework forconsidering, with greater precision, different potential ver-sions of liberal nationalism, and which kinds of pri-oritisations and trade-offs they would involve. Religion isapproached in terms of Wittgensteinian family resem-blances, referring to a host of overlapping narratives, norms,objects and practices. Autonomy is analysed in terms of col-lective and individual autonomy, and the latter is dividedinto four major dimensions: liberty (freedom from coercion)opportunity (available options) capacity (for making choices)and authenticity (the degree to which choices are genuine).These, furthermore, may be distributed differently acrossspace and time: for example, liberty may be restricted in thepresent to preserve it over time. Liberal nationalism ulti-mately has to balance intrinsic and instrumental arguments,while respecting human rights.