Christian and Moor playing chess, from The Book of Games of Alfonso X, c. 1285.
In Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen argues that the liberal project, grounded in radical individualism and the disembedding of human beings from tradition, has not failed because it fell short, but because it succeeded on its own terms—producing alienation, social fragmentation, and a loss of shared moral purpose. At first glance, this critique seems rooted in the tensions of the modern West. Yet we find a compelling historical counterpoint in an earlier age: the Golden Age of Córdoba and the broader phenomenon of Convivencia—the relative coexistence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians in medieval Spain. Juxtaposing these two case studies reveals that the health of a political order depends not only on individual liberty or centralized power but on a robust culture of the common good, nourished by shared tradition, moral formation, and civic integration. In looking to the past, we may find the seeds for renewal in the future.
Tradition as a Source of Cultural Flourishing
In Deneen’s telling, one of liberalism’s defining failures is its hostility to tradition. Liberalism seeks to liberate the individual from inherited norms—religion, family, custom, and place. But this liberation often results in an unmoored society, where identity becomes fragile and meaning elusive. In contrast, the cultural efflorescence of Córdoba during the 10th and 11th centuries rested on deeply rooted religious traditions. Muslim rulers, most notably Abd al-Rahman III and al-Hakam II, governed in accordance with Islamic principles while also patronizing philosophy, science, poetry, and architecture. Far from stifling creativity, tradition provided a moral and intellectual foundation that allowed diverse communities to flourish.
This medieval culture welcomed different faiths and cultures, but it still held firm to a common understanding of right and wrong. The Convivencia was not a utopia, but it did involve a negotiated space where religious differences coexisted within a shared cultural frame. Jewish and Christian thinkers such as Maimonides and Ibn Hazm could operate within this world because their traditions were not forcibly erased, but situated within a larger civic ecology. This speaks to a key insight missing in modern liberalism: a shared framework does not require uniformity. It requires mutual respect grounded in moral formation.
The Fragility of Freedom Without Virtue
Deneen emphasizes that liberalism has detached freedom from virtue. Once, liberty meant self-governance rooted in discipline, reason, and the common good. Liberalism redefined it as the right to do as one pleases, constrained only by minimal law. This “freedom from” eventually undermines social trust, as civic responsibility gives way to private consumption and rights-claims.
In Córdoba, by contrast, freedom was culturally and spiritually embedded. A Jew in 10th-century Andalusia was not “free” in the liberal sense, but was often able to flourish—economically, intellectually, and spiritually—within the protections of Islamic law. Muslim rulers saw themselves as stewards, not engineers of human nature. They recognized that freedom divorced from religious and philosophical virtue would dissolve into chaos.
What modern liberal societies often lack, and what Córdoba retained for a time, is a shared understanding that freedom is the fruit of virtue and order, not its enemy.
Community and Place in Civic Life
Liberalism tends to reduce community to a voluntary association of autonomous individuals. In practice, this means that the local, the familial, and the civic are eroded by globalized markets and centralized bureaucracies. Deneen is especially critical of how both market and state expand at the expense of local self-rule and moral formation.
In medieval Córdoba, however, identity was deeply tied to community, city, and craft. Learning was conducted in mosques and private homes. Artisans, scholars, and merchants all operated within a web of relational trust, embedded in their religious and neighborhood communities. Jews, for instance, preserved their own courts and educational institutions while contributing to the broader culture through translation, science, and philosophy. This rootedness gave meaning to life beyond the transactional.
The modern liberal order’s mobility and abstraction offer choices—but often at the expense of belonging and interdependence. The lesson from Córdoba is that diversity can thrive when situated in concrete practices of hospitality, shared learning, and civic responsibility—not when reduced to atomized tolerance.
The Common Good as a Civic Ideal
Finally, both Deneen and the legacy of Convivencia suggest that any enduring political order must be animated by a vision of the common good. For Córdoba, this meant an embrace of wisdom, virtue, and divine order across religious lines. For Deneen, recovering this ideal requires rejecting the liberal assumption that society is just a marketplace of preferences. Instead, politics must be reoriented around human flourishing in community.
This doesn’t necessitate theocracy or uniformity. But it does require a substantive notion of the good life—something liberalism often avoids in favor of neutrality. Córdoba's experience demonstrates that civic peace and cultural greatness are most possible when pluralism is guided by shared purpose, not endless individual autonomy.
Conclusion: Toward a Post-Liberal Imagination
Why Liberalism Failed warns us that the liberal order, for all its triumphs, may be hollowing out the very conditions that sustain human dignity and social coherence. The Golden Age of Córdoba offers a counter-narrative—imperfect, but instructive—where tradition, virtue, and plurality were integrated into a living civic order.
From these two visions—one a critique of modernity, the other a glimpse into a flourishing past—we can begin to imagine a new politics: one that balances freedom with virtue, honors tradition without tyranny, and pursues the common good over mere individual preference. Perhaps, in that synthesis, lies the hope for a more human future.
Further Reading:
Deneen, Patrick J. Why Liberalism Failed. Yale University Press, 2018.
– The central critique of liberalism explored in the essay.Menocal, María Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Little, Brown, 2002.
– A well-known, accessible account of Convivencia and the cultural flourishing of medieval Córdoba.Fletcher, Richard. Moorish Spain. University of California Press, 1992.
– A balanced historical account of Muslim rule in Spain, including the complexities of religious coexistence.Constable, Olivia Remie. Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
– A compilation of primary sources giving voice to the different religious communities in al-Andalus.MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. University of Notre Dame Press, 1981.
– An important influence on Deneen, arguing that modern moral discourse has become incoherent due to the loss of classical and religious frameworks.Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press, 2007.
– Explores how modern societies have redefined meaning and the self in the wake of religious tradition.