a brief inquiry into the meaning of sin and faith with on my religion
p john rawls never published anything about his own religious beliefs but after his death two texts were discovered which shed extraordinary light on the subject . a brief inquiry into the meaning of sin and faith is rawls s undergraduate senior thesis submitted in december 1942 just before he entered the army . at that time rawls was deeply religious ; the thesis is a significant work of theological ethics of interest both in itself and because of its relation to his mature writings . on my religion a short statement drafted in 1997 describes the history of his religious beliefs and attitudes toward religion including his abandonment of orthodoxy during world war ii . p the present volume includes these two texts together with an introduction by joshua cohen and thomas nagel which discusses their relation to rawls s published work and an essay by robert merrihew adams which places the thesis in its theological context . p the texts display the profound engagement with religion that forms the background of rawls s later views on the importance of separating religion and politics . moreover the moral and social convictions that the thesis expresses in religious form are related in illuminating ways to the central ideas of rawls s later writings . his notions of sin faith and community are simultaneously moral and theological and prefigure the moral outlook found in theory of justice .