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…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “REVIEW: Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, The Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom by Spencer W. McBride” Peter Wosnik Now a world-wide faith with over 16 million adherents, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (popularly known as Mormonism) began as a small, radical…
Open Hearts, Closed Doors: Immigration Reform and the Waning of Mainline Protestantism Nicholas Pruitt The following is a modified excerpt from Nicholas Pruitt’s Open Hearts, Closed Doors (2021), used with permission from New York University Press. At the outset of the twentieth century, white Protestants still held a tight grasp on the cultural and social resources…
The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US IslamTazeen Ali The following is a modified excerpt from Tazeen Ali’s The Women’s Mosque of America: Authority & Community in US Islam (2022), out now from New York University Press. The Women’s Mosque of America (WMA) is a multi-racial women-only mosque in Los Angeles that…
Religion and US Empire: Critical New Historiesedited by Tisa Wenger and Sylvester Johnson “Ordinary Affects of U.S. Empire”, A review by Candace Lukasik “American imperialist culture has seeped into Egyptian blood.” – Kirollos We sat on the back patio, eating watermelon in the heat of the sun on a chilly March day in 2021. Kirollos…