The Interactions podcast, a podcast about the interactions between law and religion, is produced by the CSLR and distributed by Canopy Forum. New episodes now available.
Canopy Forum and the Australian Journal of Law and Religion, are publishing a set of essays that address the impact of “nones”–individuals who do not identify with any particular religion–on law, politics, religion, and society.
Our latest series include essays on Masking Religious Violations, Transnational Christian Nationalism, IVF and ART, and a collaboration with the journal, Derecho en Sociedad. Explore our latest series by scholars around the globe.
Photo by rolf neumann on Unsplash. The study of religion has a long history of service to Western imperial ambitions. Recent decades have seen religious scholars wrestle with the implications of this colonial legacy for the future of the field. This essay, divided into two parts, will explore the connections between religion and colonialism. First,…
US Center Chapel, located at the Geographic Center of the Lower 48 States in Lebanon, Kansas. From Jimmy Emerson, DVM (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). During the Super Bowl, Jeep ran an ad that featured singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen in a chapel. Not at a political rally, not at a demonstration, but in a tiny chapel in the…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “Denmark’s Provincial Bias against Foreign Religious Languages“ Matthew P. Cavedon Denmark has proposed a new law regulating religion. Under it, all sermons and homilies must be translated into Danish. This is being billed as a national security measure. It is also being attacked as a burden on small…
An EU Law on Religion – A Recent DevelopmentEmma Ahlm The following post is a reworking of the conclusions drawn in Emma Ahlm’s dissertation, EU Law and Religion – A Study of How the Court of Justice has Adjudicated on Religious Matters in EU Law at Uppsala University. ‘Would you tell me, please, which way…
Photo by David Beale on Unsplash. No one has heard a peep from this chorister in nearly a year. Trained in law, religion, and the law of religious freedom, there was a time early in the pandemic when I wondered whether the social distancing mandates being adopted by state and, in some cases, municipal governments…
Photo by Trnava University on Unsplash. Three weeks ago, in the case of South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, the United States Supreme Court stayed the enforcement of California’s occupancy limits on worship services during the pandemic. At some level, there is nothing new here, as the Court had done the same in a…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “‘A Noble Alchemy’: Benefit of Clergy and the Early History of Leniency” Matthew P. Cavedon Criminal justice reform efforts have recently focused on the consequences of having a record. There is a growing sense that society needs to show mercy to those who pay the consequences for doing…
A Christian Approach to Corporate Religious LibertyEdward A. David Extracting Our Abstractions: Why We Need a Christian Approach to Corporate Religious LibertyAn Introduction by Edward A. David Pointing to the polarization that surrounds disputes like Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014), A Christian Approach to Corporate Religious Liberty argues that such cases need not involve…
Image by Hans from Pixabay. The millstone was an integral tool needed to grind grain to make bread and sustain life, and during Biblical times, it was deemed that taking someone’s millstone would be like taking his or her life in pledge. It has been analogized as an instrument of death, a wrath of severe…
Image adapted from Wikicommons by DhLeaks44 / CC BY-SA 4.0 “Perfectionist Prophecy, Imperfect World” Matthew P. Cavedon I recently wrote about Patrick O’Neill, a Catholic activist convicted of vandalizing a nuclear submarine base. The number of connections I have to his case is so high that this article could almost just be my list of disclosures. Here it…