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This series shares important new works addressing issues at the intersection of law and religion. Here you’ll find excerpts, reviews, and commentary on the scholarship shaping our world today.
Yoga class, Lightning in a Bottle, 2016 / Photo courtesy of author. When I was conducting research for my new book I spent nine years in multiple field sites with people who largely identified as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). These people were seeking expansive spiritual experiences, and I followed them through networks of transformational…
The Cambridge Companion to the First Amendment and Religious Liberty edited by Michael D. Breidenbach and Owen Anderson Review by Lael Weinberger Religious liberty has been the subject of lots of debates over the course of American history. The founding period saw debates about state establishments. The nineteenth century was marked by the public-school “Bible…
The American Constitution drew on diverse intellectual traditions. Among the influences constitutional scholars and political theorists have identified and studied are English common law and British constitutionalism, Enlightenment liberalism in manifold forms, and various experiments in and expressions of republicanism. Another important, yet often overlooked, influence is a biblical tradition, both Hebraic and Christian. The…
The Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street, Los Angeles, CA in 1907 / Wikimedia Most observers (and participants!) do not see much if any connection between Baptists and Pentecostals. Baptists are generally known as cessationists — contending that the miracles in the New Testament and the extraordinary spiritual gifts practiced like glossolalia (speaking in tongues),…
Recent killings of black Americans have incited anger, leading to large and sometimes violent protests across the country. The most notable deaths are those of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed by two white men in February while out for a run; Breonna Taylor, who was sleeping in her apartment when she was shot by police;…
By wonderful happenstance, this year’s Constitution Day (Thursday, September 17) occurs just two days before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and one of the “High Holy Days,” together with Yom Kippur roughly a week later. The major motif particularly of the Rosh Hashanah service, is Divine sovereignty. The most dramatic manifestation of this sovereignty…
The meaning of the religion clauses in judicial opinions has changed dramatically over the last 150 years. Doctrine has shifted, sometimes precipitously. The case law has been convoluted and unpredictable. The Free Exercise Clause, for example, was initially interpreted to protect religious belief, but not religious practice. Many decades later, the U.S. Supreme Court shifted…
This essay was originally published on June 16, 2020 in Cato Unbound: A Journal of Debate The Liberty Bell is one of the most prominent symbols of American freedom. It is inscribed with the words “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all inhabitants thereof,” which are taken from Leviticus 25:10. In Did America Have…
In his dissent in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, wherein the Supreme Court invalidated student-led prayer prior to the start of high school football games, a dismayed Chief Justice William Rehnquist expressed the sentiment of many Americans, that “[t]he Court … bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life.”In light of…
“Don’t Write off Sharia’s Forgiveness Option Just Because of the Khashoggi Case” Matthew P. Cavedon Jamal Khashoggi was a prominent international journalist and Saudi dissident. He was tortured to death and dismembered in 2018 at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. On September 7, eight Saudis were sentenced for their participation in what their government characterized…