Liberalism’s Spiritual Persistence

Political liberalism can fail as a coherent governing ideology while elements of it continue to survive and shape society as a spiritual or cultural principle—especially where tied to religious traditions. The distinction matters because remedies that treat liberalism purely as a political program will miss the deeper cultural energies that sustain or revive it. — Framing liberalism as partly a spiritual cultural substrate changes how reformers and critics should engage: focus on institutional repair and cultural translation, not only policy overhaul.