by John Allen reports, in the National Catholic Reporter, that religious freedom has emerged as “the signature issue” for the Synod of Bishops of the Middle East: It’s only day one of the Oct. 10-24 Synod of Bishops for the Middle East, but already its signature issue has come into focus: Religious freedom, seen as the cornerstone [...]
Read the full postArchive for the 'Richard Garnett' Category
In the Washington Post, Damon Linker (author of “Theocons”), proposes a “religious test” for all political candidates: Instead of attempting the impossible task of abolishing faith from the political conversation, we need a new kind of religious test for our leaders. Unlike the tests proscribed by the Constitution, this one would not threaten to formally [...]
Read the full postMy friend Paul Horwitz has a review up, at the Concurring Opinions blog, of David A. J. Richards’s book, “Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obama’s Challenge to Patriarchy’s Threat to Democracy.” (Interesting title.) Paul opens with this:
When you read the words “This is a provocative book” in a review, you know you’re in the presence of a mixed compliment. On the one hand, the critic will praise the book for saying something new, interesting, and potentially valuable about an important topic. On the other, it signals that the critic thinks there is something deeply flawed, wrong, or misguided about the book, and has reached for polite language to damn it with faint praise.
Read the full postI was delighted to receive in the mail the other day my copy of Steven Smith’s latest book, “The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse.” Run (or, double-click), don’t walk, to get yours. As one of the back-cover blurb-ers (ahem, me) puts it, “[t]his book presses us to look harder at closely held beliefs and to question [...]
Read the full postHere is an op-ed of mine, which ran this weekend in the Wall Street Journal, in which I offer some thoughts about the religious composition of the Court, how it might have come to be what it is, and whether it matters.
Read the full postA fascinating op-ed, in The New York Times, by the often-fascinating Stanley Fish, “Does Reason Know what it is missing?” Here’s a bit (presenting Habermas): What secular reason is missing is self-awareness. It is “unenlightened about itself” in the sense that it has within itself no mechanism for questioning the products and conclusions of its [...]
Read the full postGo here for Scot Powe’s review of Donald Drakeman’s Church, State, and Original Intent (Cambridge). The book is first-rate, in my view. (Full disclosure: I blurbed the book for the press.) After a generally helpful review, Powe concludes, oddly, with a clunky pivot to the observation that “[t]hree years ago, the Supreme Court ignored its [...]
Read the full postHere’s a link to a book chapter I’ve done, for a forthcoming volume (edited by John Witte and Frank Alexander) on “Christianity and Human Rights.”
What is the “right to freedom of religion,” a right which our leading human-rights instruments commit us to protecting, and what are the legal and other mechanisms that will sustain and vindicate our commitment? Some mechanisms might be better (or less well) designed for the purpose and so might work better (or less well) than others; some actors and authorities might be more (or less) reliable and effective protectors than others. In other words, the project of protecting human rights – including the right to religious freedom – involves not only reflecting on human goods and goals, but also wrestling with questions about institutional design and competence.
Read the full post
