religious passion in the american polity

one of the fascinating outcomes of the sarah smith conference, "religiously incorrect? public faith in a pluralistic world" was emergence of this question, a question i believe to be central to the conversation internationally just now:

are we able to find models of fervent belief that because of its passion tends more towards openness toward others who believe differently rather than less so?

this question was raised in different ways by the speakers, from nancy ammerman talking about the face-to-face work of congregational life offering the potential for practice in living with conflict and difference of opinion to the willingness of mike volkema to learn from younger workers at herman miller about the value of an integrated life where work is not kept at arms length from faith but rather is a fulfillment of it, to stephen carter who pressed our guest judges regarding their ability to think well separated from their deepest convictions, religious or otherwise.

so now i've found a new book by highly respected political theorist michael walzer on just these issues--i'm reading it now and more to come on that. the book is politics and passion: towards a more egalitarian liberalism.