Historic Houses of Worship in Peril: Conserving Their Place in American Life By Thomas Edward Frank This excerpt from Historic Houses of Worship in Peril: Conserving Their Place in American Life is an introduction to our virtual conference, “Religion, Property Law, and the Crisis of Houses of Worship.” View selected videos and browse all essays…
Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian StateTamir Moustafa The following is an excerpt from Tamir Moustafa’s Constituting Religion: Islam, Liberal Rights, and the Malaysian State (Cambridge University Press, August 2018). This book is available to read via open access. Over half of all Muslim-majority countries have constitutions that proclaim Islam the religion of…
Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous PeoplesPeter d’Errico The following is an excerpt from Peter d’Errico’s Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous Peoples (Bloomsbury, September 2022). 2023 is the bi-centennial year of Johnson v. McIntosh, the case that put ‘Christian discovery’ into US property law in a way that simultaneously created…
The Polish Contribution to the Global Legal Culture Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier and Rafael Domingo The following is excerpted from the Introduction of Law and Christianity in Poland: The Legacy of the Great Jurists, edited by Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier and Rafael Domingo and out now from Routledge. Poland stands out considerably on the international scene for its…
Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic WorldMaria Berbara The following is an adapted excerpt from Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World, edited by Maria Berbara. Available now from Harvard University Press. Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World investigates the transit of texts, music, images, rituals and ideas…
Unbelievers: An Emotional History of DoubtAlec Ryrie Adapted from UNBELIEVERS: AN EMOTIONAL HISTORY OF DOUBT BY ALEC RYRIE, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2019). Why,” the philosopher Charles Taylor asks, “was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of…
The Blessings of Liberty: Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal TraditionJohn Witte, Jr. The following is excerpted from John Witte, Jr.’s The Blessings of Liberty: Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition, out now from Cambridge University Press. Read Nicholas Wolterstorff’s review of the book here. For the past…
The Polish Contribution to the Global Legal CultureJohn Witte, Jr. The following is excerpted from Law and Christianity in Poland: The Legacy of the Great Jurists, edited by Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier and Rafael Domingo and out now from Routledge. This volume is another signature title in the book series on “Great Christian Jurists in…
The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost VisionErika Bachiochi This excerpt is from the first chapter of The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision and was published by the University of Notre Dame Press (2021). In 1785, John Adams, his wife, Abigail, and their two eldest children departed from his diplomatic post in Paris…
Banning Black Gods:Law and Religions of the African Diaspora Danielle Boaz This excerpt is adapted from Banning Black Gods: Law and Religions of the African Diaspora and was recently published by Penn State University Press (2021). Introduction In 2003, Toronto police officers suspected that two Jamaican-Canadian brothers were involved in a series of murders that plagued…