Lady Justice at The Palace of Justice, Rome, Italy by Jebulon (CC0 1.0) Against the backdrop of the affirmation of the Modern State and the birth of national legal systems, the hundred years from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century represent a period full of changes for Europe also in the legal field. As…
Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY by David Merrett (CC BY 2.0) This article is part of our series on Law, Religion, and Immigration. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. This essay is an excerpt from a report published in July 2025 by the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Union…
FAN Members hold vigil during the Supreme Court hearing by Ilovestfrancis (CC BY-SA 3.0) This article is part of our series on Law, Religion, and Immigration. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. Nomos, Narrative, and the “Alien” Law is more than a system of codified rules. A world of law, as…
Weak Thought and the LawThomas Jared Farmer The following is an excerpt from Thomas Jared Farmer’s upcoming book, Gianni Vattimo: Philosopher, Communist, Catholic, Nihilist. Farmer’s book is now available for pre-order. Excerpted with permission: Copyright (c) 2025 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved. Page numbers refer to publications linked in the text.…
A Church Interior by Pieter Neefs the Elder (PD-US). I wrote this essay following the mass shooting at Minneapolis’s Annunciation Catholic School. Demonization of entire groups has only intensified since then—toward Blacks in the wake of the public-transit stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, and toward transgender people and leftists after the Charlie Kirk assassination. I believe…
Church of St. John at Kaneo, Ohrid by Kallerna (CC BY-SA 4.0). The perception that Christianity is under attack has long animated American political culture. Conservative American Christians even claim that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide. Vice President J.D. Vance recently tweeted that, “All over the world, Christians are the most persecuted…
Reading the Bible by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (US-PD). During the Protestant Reformation, the Herborn Academy was a Calvinist Reformed institution located in German territory, which was therefore Lutheran. It operated from 1584 until 1817. Herborn was the cradle of covenant theology, also known as federal theology. Due to its adherence to Calvinism, it was never officially…
Christian Natural Law and Religious FreedomAlex Deagon The following is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Alex Deagon’s new book, Christian Natural Law and Religious Freedom: A Foundation Based on Love, the True, and the Good (Copyright 2025 by Imprint). Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group. Page numbers refer to publications linked in…
The Inquisition Tribunal by Francisco Goya (PD-Art). Bartolomé de Las Casas (c.1484–1566)—the first Catholic bishop of the Americas—commented on many of the controversies of the Spanish Empire of his day. While he never evaluated the Inquisition in writing, his life intersected with it several times. (Curiously, though Las Casas was possibly descended from conversos, or…
Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine of Hippo via Metropolitan Museum of Art (US-PD). On June 21, Pope Leo XIV delivered one of his first statements on Catholic social teaching. Addressing members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union, he emphasized themes that are emerging as focuses for his papacy: unity, dialogue, and the challenges presented…