Does Mainline Protestantism Influence Conservative Political Theory? Conceptions of Religion in Hermann Lübbe, Richard Neuhaus and Michael Oakeshott
Dr. Maria Grazia Martino

Abstract
From the 1960s on, mainline Protestant churches in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom developed a left-wing politicization. This article investigates whether under these conditions mainline Protestantism is still compatible with Conservatism. For this purpose, it compares the understandings of religion and the Church hold by three Conservative and Protestant authors: Hermann Lübbe, Richard Neuhaus and Michael Oakeshott. The result shows three varieties: immanentization and politicization of Protestantism for Lübbe; immanentization of Protestantism by liberal theology without its politicization for Oakeshott; neither immanentization nor politicization of Protestantism, but continuation of a traditional theology and its role for the Church for Neuhaus.

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