Picture by Todd van Hoosear (CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED). In June 2023, the Supreme Court announced two significant First Amendment decisions: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis and Groff v. DeJoy. In 303 Creative, both the majority and the dissent commented on what a difference time can make. But in both 303 Creative and Groff, I…
Picture of The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria by James Gordon (CC BY 2.0) This article is part of our “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives” series. If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Since the 9.11 attacks and subsequent Global War on Terror, one of the major fields of study related to…
Image: Church Altar Pews (Pixabay) This article is part of our “Reassessing Democracy: Contemporary Perspectives” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. T here is no single Catholic political philosophy. Some intellectuals, like twentieth-century philosopher Heinrich Rommen, have even suggested that “Catholic political philosophy” is a contradiction in terms, given the…
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Throughout its history, capitalism has been met with harsh religious resistance and objections. Today, both Islam and Christianity continue to criticize capitalist economies and societies for injustice, exploitation, and the concept of humanity. In such criticism of economy and society, actors refer to religious ideas to reinterpret their situation, ideas…
James West investigating the Constitution. From NASA (PD-US). Let’s explore an out of the ordinary way of thinking about the relation between religion and accounts of constitutional interpretation. In a recent article, I argued against the theory of “original public meaning” in constitutional and other legal interpretation, pointing to a “distinct, deadly, bit of intractable…
Prambanan Temple Complex in Yogyakarta Indonesia. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas. (CC BY-SA 3.0). Political theory in premodern South Asia settled on a single model of governance at a relatively early date: kingship. This was so in large part because those who defined and controlled the intellectual and religious institutions of the day, the Brahmins,…
Religion in Isla Margarita, Valle del Espíritu Santo by Wilfredor (CC0 1.0). This essay seeks to illustrate the state of religious freedom in Venezuela by analyzing the factors that affect its free exercise. First, it describes the presence of religious communities in the country and their relationship with the government. Second, it reviews the regulatory…
St Francis of Assisi by Philip Fruytiers. From the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. (PD-US). It is possible to investigate Saint Francis of Assisi’s life (1181-1226) from many different and relevant angles. His biography and the accounts of the way he lived are permeated with remarkable singularities and events: his horizontalized view of non-human…
“Amir Kabir University Uprising September 2022” by Darafsh. (CC BY-SA 4.0). How much can a religious-political system control its citizens? The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) legally required the hijab in 1983. Later, in 1996 and 2014, amendments were made to the penal code of Iran, but this law remained in place. According to the…
The Case for Parental Choice: God, Family, and Educational LibertyJohn E. Coons This is an adapted excerpt from Chapter 5 of The Case for Parental Choice: God, Family, and Educational Liberty (Notre Dame Press, 2023) by John E. Coons and is based on previously unpublished remarks to the C.S. Lewis Foundation in February 2006. In…