Theological modernism, cultural libertarianism and laissez-faire economicsin contemporary European societies

Through analyses of national surveys of 12 European countries and Israel, w e test hypotheses relating moral cosmology to cultural and economic attitud es. Modernists are theologically more individualistic than the religiously orthodox in that they see individuals, not a deity, as responsible for thei r fates and as the ultimate moral arbiters. We hypothesize that modernists, as theological individualists, are culturally individualistic or libertari an in supporting freedom of choice on cultural issues of abortion, sexualit y, religious education, and gender soles. We hypothesize as well that moder nists are economically individualistic in believing that individuals are re sponsible for their own success or failure and that the solution to poverty and unemployment is greater effort by the poor and jobless themselves, not government aid or private charity. In our analyses we find support for bot h hypotheses. In conventional political terms, modernists are to the left o f the religiously orthodox on cultural concerns but to the right of the ort hodox on economic issues. What explains this paradox is the individualism t hat underlies both cultural libertarianism and laissez-faire economics.