Religious Freedom Project
Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs has received a $2 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support the interdisciplinary study of religious freedom. The Religious Freedom Project engages a team of leading international scholars led by the Center's Thomas Farr.
PROJECT NEWS
Tim Shah Featured in Deseret News Story on State Department Religious Freedom Report
May 21, 2013Tom Farr Quoted on Religious Freedom and Extremism by FrontPage Magazine
May 21, 2013Roger Trigg Explores the Links between Philosophy of Religion and Religious Marginalization
May 20, 2013Roger Trigg's Address to the Iona Institute Conference on "What We Owe Christianity"
May 20, 2013Tom Farr's Presentation at the Common Word Conference on April 24
May 20, 2013Article by Roger Trigg Claims Religious Freedom is Not Just Special Pleading
May 2, 2013New Video: Tom Farr Addresses Religious Freedom and Terrorism with EWTN's Raymond Arroyo
April 29, 2013Timothy Shah Presents Paper on Religious Freedom, Democratization, and Economic Development
April 29, 2013Jean Elshtain Named Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress
April 25, 2013Tom Farr Talks with EWTN about Kidnapped Syrian Bishops
April 25, 2013Mona Siddiqui Chosen as Associate Editor of Online Qur'anic Encyclopedia
April 19, 2013The Scotsman reviews Christians, Muslims and Jesus by Mona Siddiqui
April 15, 2013PROJECT LEADERS
Thomas Farr
Thomas F. Farr is Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and a Visiting Associate...
Timothy Shah
Timothy Samuel Shah is Associate Director of the Religious Freedom Project at the Berkley Center For Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and...
ASSOCIATE SCHOLARS
José Casanova
José Casanova is one of the world's top scholars in the sociology of religion. He is a professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown...
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago, where she also has...
William Inboden
William Inboden is Assistant Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Distinguished Scholar at the Strauss Center for International...
David Novak
David Novak holds the J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair of Jewish Studies as Professor of the Study of Religion and Professor of Philosophy at the...
Daniel Philpott
Daniel Philpott is exploring Catholic and Protestant contributions to democracy from the years 1800-2000 for the Christianity and Freedom Project....
Mona Siddiqui
Mona Siddiqui, OBE is Professor of Islamic and Inter-religious Studies and Assistant Principal for Religion and Society at the University of...
Monica Duffy Toft
Monica Duffy Toft is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Director of the Initiative on Religion in...
Roger Trigg
Roger Trigg, of St Cross College, Oxford, is Senior Research Fellow in the Ian Ramsey Centre, University of Oxford, and a member of both the...
PROJECT STAFF
A.J. Nolte
A.J. Nolte joined the RFP at the beginning of October 2012, after two years as a research assistant at the Center for Complex Operations, National...
Kyle Vander Meulen
Kyle Vander Meulen joined the Berkley Center in January 2011. Before coming to the Center, he completed his master's studies in Divinity at the...
RFP Publications List
May 28, 2013
In Christians, Muslims and Jesus, Mona Siddiqui provides a scholarly and detailed comparative treatment of the role Jesus plays in Christianity and Islam. Describing Jesus as both "bridge" and "barrier" between the two faiths, Siddiqui traces their comparative development of doctrine, focusing on the critical role Jesus played for both. Christians, Muslims and Jesus is a must-read for scholars, interfaith practitioners, and anyone who seeks to understand the common ground and stark divides between Christianity and Islam.
April 29, 2013
Based on an extensive survey of relevant scholarly literature in economics, political science, sociology and other disciplines, in this paper Timothy Shah and Anthony Gill identify concrete ways that religious freedom contributes to economic freedom and prosperity and political freedom and democracy. It is based on an earlier paper Anthony Gill presented to an RFP Experts Seminar at Georgetown in December 2012. Shah presented this paper, co-authored with Gill, at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture (ASREC) in Washington, D.C. on April 13, 2013.
December 18, 2012
Muslim-Christian understanding has grown to be one of the largest concerns for religious freedom and dialogue in recent years. An understanding of how Islam and Christianity approach each other theologically and politically is essential for understanding the challenges of inter-religious relations. The Routledge Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, edited by RFP scholar Mona Siddiqui, is a vital resource on how Christian and Muslim scholars have influenced the discourse on the changing interfaces between Christianity and Islam. After an in-depth introduction by Mona Siddiqui, the book presents a wide range of scholarly approaches focusing on critical and appreciative approaches to the key religious figures, texts, and approaches to God for Muslims and Christians.
December 5, 2012
Despite the avowed importance of religious freedom, significant debate arises over its desirability and priority in practice. One area where debate is especially fierce, and consequential for the world is violent religious extremism. The enormous political changes associated with the Arab Spring have made this debate even more relevant in recent years. The Religious Freedom Project designed this sourcebook to assist scholars, students, media, policy experts, and other interested parties in exploring the complex relationship between religious freedom and violent religious extremism. The case studies are accompanied by a select annotated bibliography of scholarly works, a listing of useful data sets, suggestions for further reading, and a bibliography of sources cited.
November 16, 2012
RFP associate director Timothy Shah joined scholars and religious leaders for a major conference on Christian martyrdom sponsored by the Institute for Church Life at Notre Dame. In his speech, Shah draws attention to the active witness of persecuted and martyred Christians throughout history and indeed around the world today.
November 2, 2012
Noted sociologist Michael Emerson reviews God's Century by RFP associate director Timothy Shah and associate scholars Monica Toft and Dan Philpott in the latest journal of Contemporary Sociology. Emerson writes of the book, "Rarely is a book written that has the potential to save and improve the lives of millions
of people. This is such a book."
October 18, 2012
On April 11 and 12, 2012, the Religious Freedom Project held a probing international conference
on an intensely controversial, but manifestly important subject—the rising tensions
in Europe and the United States between traditional understandings of religious freedom and
emerging claims of equality, especially those made by homosexuals.
Held on the grounds of one of Oxford University’s most ancient and beautiful institutions—Magdalen College—the conference was entitled “Religious Freedom and Equality: Emerging
Conflicts in Europe and North America.” This report records Bishop Philip Tartaglia’s
keynote address and discussion, followed by panels and conversations about the United Kingdom
and Ireland, Continental Europe, and North America. The report is an edited transcript of scholars’ presentations, as well as their highly enlightening
engagement with the invitation-only audience, and concludes with discussion
from the final wrap-up session.
October 16, 2012
On March 22, 2012, the Religious Freedom Project convened four of the nation’s top first amendment scholars to debate a
highly contentious and vitally important issue: the religious freedom implications of what has become known as the “HHS
mandate.” That mandate—part of the Obama administration’s signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act of 2010—requires that most insurance plans cover certain services that are styled “preventive healthcare.” They include
immunizations, screenings for infants and children, and breastfeeding support. More controversially, the HHS mandate requires
coverage for all “Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods [and] sterilization procedures …for all
women with reproductive capacity.” Some of the approved contraceptive methods can induce abortions. This report is an edited transcript of respectful but vigorous debate between Helen M. Alvaré, Martin Lederman, Michael McConnell, and Melissa Rogers on key questions of religious freedom and First Amendment application.
October 3, 2012
Considering that a strong correlation has existed between religious persecution and national security both in recent years and throughout the twentieth century, the article makes the case for more significant attention to religious freedom in America’s national security strategy. While a state that engages in violations of religious liberty does not automatically constitute a national security threat to the U.S., it is more likely to become one than a state which demonstrates respect for religious freedom. This potentially threatening religious intolerance generally comes from three categories of actors: jihadist terrorism, theocratic regimes, and authoritarian powers. Regardless of these actors’ different motives for undermining religious pluralism, their actions tend to destabilize or raise tensions in the states in question, or contradict American strategic interests. Inboden argues that taking religious freedom into account during the formulation of national security policy will allow the U.S. government to better diagnose potential threats, ameliorate dire circumstances that may cause them to develop, and in the long term prevent new threats from materializing. The United States needs to move beyond rhetorical flourishes about religious freedom, and embrace it as a central component of its foreign policy. Doing so would advance not only America’s ideals, but its national security interests as well.
September 13, 2012
RFP Director Tom Farr spoke at a conference on "International Religious Freedom: An Imperative for Peace and the Common Good," held at the Catholic University of America on September 12, 2012. In this speech he argues that the state of international religious freedom is in a deepening crisis, pointing out how much of the world's population lives in countries with severe restrictions on religious freedom and describing the Pakistani case of a disabled Christian girl accused of blasphemy against Islam. Farr notes that despite some successes, US foreign policy has not been particularly effective in advancing religious freedom, and he closes with a hopeful account of the July 31 release of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.
September 1, 2012
On March 16, 2012, the Religious Freedom Project turned to the events of what has been labeled
the "Arab Spring" and brought some of the nation’s premier scholars and policymakers to
Georgetown in order to debate a critical question: What role, if any, ought religious freedom play
in the struggle for self-governance among the countries of the Arab Spring? This report provides a transcript of the discussions that ensued as high-level officials from the Bush and Obama
administrations - Dennis Ross, Stephen Hadley, and Elliott Abrams - and other panelists debated a range of related issues: Can religious liberty play a role in helping democracy to root? What is the relationship between
religious freedom and religious extremism, defined as political engagement by religious actors
that is hostile to constitutional democracy and open to the use of violence? Can religious freedom
limit religious extremism? How should U.S. foreign policy seek to promote democratic
institutions and regimes of religious liberty that can best counter religious extremism in practice?
The answers to these and similar questions are not only important for the Arab Spring countries,
their citizens, and their neighbors in the region. The answers are also important for the national
security interests of the United States and the American people.
September 1, 2012
On November 17, 2011, the Religious Freedom Project conducted its first public symposium.
In keeping with its objective of exploring the meaning and value of religious freedom, the
RFP’s first symposium began at the beginning with the theme “What’s So Special About Religious
Freedom?". This report is an edited transcript of three profoundly fascinating and in some ways groundbreaking
conversations.
The first is a discussion of the historical and contemporary sources of religious freedom in the
West. Top scholars debate the contributions, respectively, of Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism,
and Enlightenment secularism.
The second is a debate over the conference’s core question—what, if anything, is special about
religious freedom, this time in the American context. The combatants are two of America’s most
eminent jurists: Stanford Law’s Michael McConnell and Harvard Law’s Noah Feldman.
The third turns to the question of the universality of religious freedom and its compatibility with
non-Western cultures.
September 1, 2012
In The Good Muslim: Reflections on Classical Islamic Law and Theology, RFP Scholar Mona Siddiqui explores key themes in Islamic law and theology that continue to be relevant in the modern world. Her topics for reflection range from discussions about friendship, divorce, drunkenness, love, slavery, and ritual slaughter; topics that reveal fascinating insights into Islamic ethics, and the way in which arguments have developed in discourse and for jurists. Because of the specific nature of her topic choice, the work charts its own personal course through the rich history and background of the Islamic tradition and gives insight into Siddiqui’s own thinking and interpretations in her many other works.
July 9, 2012
In his article in The Weekly Standard, RFP Director Thomas Farr argues that the Obama Administration has neglected the key foreign policy issue of religious freedom, with serious ramifications. Farr begins by pointing specifically to the State Department dropping its coverage of religious freedom from its annual Human Rights Report, despite a crisis of religious persecution around the world. Farr then describes in detail the lack of initiative and concern for the religious liberty issue over the course of the Obama administration, and identifies several key events that warranted greater U.S. attention.
July 1, 2012
Featured in the June/July 2012 edition of First Things,RFP Scholar Daniel Philpott's article "Peace After Genocide" examines the current paradigm for seeking post-genocide justice. He argues that torn societies need reconciliation, not the model of international communities that uses a "theology of persecution." The key fault, Philpott contends, is that the "liberal peace" model of justice has become a theology in and of itself while ignoring "real theology" and religious ideas for reconciliation.
June 13, 2012
Titled "The Church and the Global Crisis of Religious Liberty," RFP Director Tom Farr delivered remarks to the Annual Conference of Catholic Bishops, Atlanta, on June 13, 2012. Prof. Farr was tasked with providing "an overview of challenges to religious freedom around the world" to place the important discussion in context for the USCCB.
May 31, 2012
In Political Demography: How Population Changes are Reshaping International Security and National Politics RFP Scholar Monica Duffy Toft and co-editors Jack Goldstone and Eric Kaufmann examine the rising importance of demography in national and global politics in an age where demographic changes are greatly affecting the policies of the developed and developing world. Through their work, Toft, Goldstone, and Kaufmann fill in the gaps in the study of demography from a global and historical perspective with the hope that policymakers will take these insights into account when drafting policies for our collective future. The book's chapters address issues ranging from the consequences of a youth bulge, race and immigration, and the politics of fertility, to the role of religion and identity in conflict.
May 24, 2012
RFP Director Tom Farr delivered a speech titled "Rising Threats to American Religious Freedom: Framing the Problem" to the American Religious Freedom Program on May 24th, 2012.
May 4, 2012
RFP Director Thomas Farr delivered a speech entitled "Jefferson's Other Wall: Addressing The Global Crisis in Religious Liberty" as one of Open Door's Frontline Briefings on May 4th, 2012.
May 1, 2012
How can justice be achieved and peace restored where the wounds of war, genocide, and dictatorship are so deep? Why does the approach to peace-building that dominates the United Nations, Western governments, and the human rights community so often fall short of bringing healing to torn societies? Is there a universal standard that will work for people of diverse and often conflicting religious, cultural, and philosophical backgrounds?
In Just and Unjust Peace: an Ethic of Political Reconciliation, Daniel Philpott explains why justice and an effective political order call for a more holistic, restorative approach. He proposes a form of political reconciliation that is deeply rooted in three religious traditions - Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - that fully express the concepts of justice, mercy, and peace. By adapting these concepts to modern constitutional democracy and international norms, Philpott crafts an ethic that can have universal appeal and offers a fresh approach to the age-old problem of restoring justice in the aftermath of widespread injustice.
In Just and Unjust Peace: an Ethic of Political Reconciliation, Daniel Philpott explains why justice and an effective political order call for a more holistic, restorative approach. He proposes a form of political reconciliation that is deeply rooted in three religious traditions - Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - that fully express the concepts of justice, mercy, and peace. By adapting these concepts to modern constitutional democracy and international norms, Philpott crafts an ethic that can have universal appeal and offers a fresh approach to the age-old problem of restoring justice in the aftermath of widespread injustice.
March 21, 2012
Given the different worldviews and foreign policy pursuits of realism and liberal internationalism, how is it they come to a similar conclusion that religious beliefs and practices, except in extremis, should not affect in any substantive way how foreign policy is conducted? What accounts for this continued religion-avoidance even after 9/11?
To realists, religious beliefs and actions are relevant to the realist model of international affairs only when they drive the policy decisions of governments or help us to understand the levers of power. Assuming that religion is inherently irrational, religion rarely fits into realist construct as a unit of analysis. Meanwhile, liberal internationalists tend to see traditional religious communities as obstacles to the adoption of liberal policies, such as sexual liberation and the determinative value of human autonomy.
This blindness to religion has harmed the interests of Western democracies, and policy makers should strive to improve their willingness and their ability to account for the religious realities of the contemporary international order.
March 6, 2012
RFP director Tom Farr discusses the global crisis in religious liberty and calls for a strategy of “religious realism” in American foreign policy. Based on this strategy, policy makers should recognize the high religiosity around the globe and accept the role religion plays in politics. It is to the interest of the United States to promote religious liberty as a means of countering Islamist extremism, by inducing religious actors to compete democratically in struggling democracies. Since stability can no longer be expected out of tyranny, as the Arab Spring has shown, for it to proceed from stable democracy the Muslim-majority nations must grant equal religious liberty to all faith traditions and to the minorities in particular. While the current US foreign policy has experienced a diplomatic inertia regarding religious liberty, religious freedom should be integrated into US strategic agenda to counter terrorism and to build democracy with greater efforts.
February 23, 2012
In an interview with the Canadian International Council, RFP director Thomas Farr explains what can be learned from religious freedom policy in the US and critiques the US foreign policy regarding the promotion of religious freedoms around the world. After expounding the importance and significance of religious freedom, Professor Farr criticizes the negligent stance the US takes on China’s denial of religious freedoms. Professor Farr further analyzes the implications of the Arab Spring on religious freedom around the world and emphasizes the importance of resolving Egypt’s religious freedom issues as it develops into a well-functioning democracy.
February 22, 2012
In this post to Foreign Policy's "Shadow Government" blog, Berkley Center Scholar William Inboden posits that Jeremy Lin's emergence as an NBA star may have greater long-term impact on the relationship between the US and China than the visit to the US of Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping. Acknowledging the import of Xi's impending accession to the premiership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Inboden nevertheless suspects that Lin's Taiwanese heritage and evangelical Christian faith are going to have long-term consequences in opening up the conversation between the US and China as publics in both countries -- but particularly the latter -- celebrate Lin's stardom.
February 15, 2012
Religious Freedom Project scholar William Inboden, writing in the Foreign Policy blog "Shadow Government," claims that with respect to Iran, history is a poor guide as to whether or not to intervene militarily against the country's nuclear ambitions. Given a dearth of historical analogies to the current situation vis-a-vis Iran, Inboden argues that most attempts by politicians to point to history for prescriptive answers to the question of "to bomb or not to bomb" are likely to "distort more than enlighten." Still, history is not without its lessons, and the biggest caution it offers on Iran is that of the history of unintended consequences. No matter what decision government(s) take on Iran, they should first and foremost be cognizant of the long histories of interventions in producing unintended consequences.
February 6, 2012
Religious Freedom Project scholar and Harvard professor Monica Duffy Toft, in a review of Steven Pinker's and Joshua Goldstein's books on the decline of violence in the modern world, argues that the latter two authors may need to re-think their definition of what constitutes violence. While granting their conclusion that wars have declined appreciably over human history and markedly since WWII, Toft challenges Pinker and Goldstein for being too reliant on data analysis. Specifically, she argues that their definition of violence as death ignores the physical and psychological harm that accompany modern war but do not result in death. She is also unwilling to assume that the trend Pinker and Goldstein observe is irreversible: she "remain[s] unconvinced that the barbarism of humanity is behind us" and is concerned that "what has happened before could happen again." In short, Toft commends the scholarship of Pinker and Goldstein, but wants us to remain mindful of the substantial harm that can be caused short of death and the moral challenges such harm poses.
February 3, 2012
Religious Freedom Project Director Thomas Farr explains in a recent interview with Columbia magazine that international religious freedom is in a moment of "global crisis" and that it is imperative that the United States stand up for this "first freedom" around the world. According to Farr, stable, democratic, pluralistic societies are impossible to realize without respect for religious freedom. Arguments that counter or de-emphasize the importance of religious freedom are coming both from certain religious groups and from secular governments; though Farr acknowledges that "some religious ideas are a cause of terrorism," he adamantly supports religious freedom as the antidote to religious extremism. Ultimately, Farr encourages Knights of Columbus to speak out on their beliefs "in a reasonable, persuasive and charitable way" and to vote for candidates who will support the "vital issue" of religious freedom.
January 25, 2012
Noted writer for the British Catholic newspaper, The Tablet, Brian Wicker reviews the book Equality, Freedom, & Religion authored by RFP scholar and Oxford philosopher Roger Trigg. Calling the book a “well-written and approachable discussion of some very difficult questions about freedom of religion and equality before the law” Wicker praises Trigg for the “exemplary clarity” with which he analyzes the implications of the many complex cases and judicial decisions Trigg addresses in his book. . Wicker acclaims the clarity with which Trigg writes while raising a myriad of intriguing questions with well-considered responses.
January 19, 2012
In this review of Comparative Secularisms in a Global Age (Linell Cady and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, eds., 2010), Trigg's assessment concludes that "this fascinating and timely volume warns us against assuming any facile understanding of the definition of secularism and the relation between religion and society" (150). In their book, Cady and Hurd take as cases the unique and divergent experiences of and with secularism in Turkey, France, the United States and India. Trigg, reviewing their work, concludes that the volume's strength lies in its breadth of comparative perspective -- the four case studies -- and in its analysis of the nature of secularism in each country. All four secularisms evolved to answer the still-pressing question of how to regulate religion in the public sphere, but the conception of the religious history and the public realm varies from country to country as well. Thus, the authors are able to effectively "show that the countries themselves are each trying to build a secularism resting on very different historical foundations" (149). Hence the timeliness off the work: as more and more of the world picks up the question of public religion, this book cautions that all of the models that exist today are different by nature as well as by nurture. The review was published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion.
January 1, 2012
Edited by Dennis Hoover and Douglas Johnston, Religion and Foreign Affairs (Baylor University Press, 2012), presents the writings of leading scholars on religion and global politics, offering a broad selection of essays. From the theoretical foundations of force and peacemaking to globalization and American foreign policy, the compendium provides a solid introduction to the field of religion and foreign affairs that will lead to candid dialogue about the role of religion and encourage intelligent practice in public life worldwide. RFP director Tom Farr and associate director Tim Shah contribute to the section entitled “Religion, Democracy, and the State." In her review of the book, RFP scholar Monica Duffy Toft called it, "an impressive, timely compilation of some of the best writings on religion and foreign affairs."
December 20, 2011
Noted sociologist David Martin, renowned for his work on secularization, reviews the book God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics co-authored by RFP Scholars Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shah, for the Times Literary Supplement. Calling the book "an important" and "exemplary study of global developments by political scientists interested in the role of 'religious actors' according to socio-historical contexts," Martin praises the authors for their analysis of situations in which religion either serves to reinforce negative outcomes or acts to support efforts towards peace.
November 4, 2011
A tense subplot of the Arab Spring is the increasing endangerment of the region’s Christians. In Egypt, Coptic Christians, 10% of the population, have been attacked repeatedly by Salafist Muslims unleashed – many literally released from prison -- by the fall of President Hosni Mubarak. No wonder that Christians in Syria now fear their fate at the hands of the country’s Sunni Muslim majority should President Bashar al-Assad’s government fall.
October 27, 2011
In this video, Religious Freedom Project Director Thomas Farr gives a panel presentation on the globalization of U.S. legal norms at a Stanford Law School conference on "The Constitution and the World."
October 13, 2011
In this video recording, Religious Freedom Project Director Thomas Farr presents a paper on religious freedom in China at the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson Center.
September 27, 2011
Reviewing Brian Grim and Roger Finke's book of the same name, Religious Freedom Project Director Thomas Farr agrees with the researchers' thesis that "the price of denying religious freedom is unacceptably high." In their book, Grim and Finke parse worldwide data on religious freedom or lack thereof, concluding that an open, competitionary "religious economies" model of church-state relations is best for promoting tolerance. Farr concurs, drawing an explicit link between "privatization" of religion and incidence of religious persecution.
September 16, 2011
In his article "Freedom of Religion," Roger Trigg draws on historical examples, moral and political philosophy, and scientific research to argue for freedom of religion in the public sphere. After demonstrating how absolute neutrality toward religion is an illusion, Trigg addresses the danger that comes from trying to control or marginalize religion, employing cognitive science research to support the claim that because religion is deeply rooted in human nature, it is bad policy to try to control it. In addressing the conflict that often occurs between the right to exercise religion and other rights, Trigg emphasizes that the claims of religious individuals and communities must be taken seriously and that they should also be allowed to freely promote their vision of the common good. Finally, Trigg points to Europe's Christian heritage as an important historical source of political freedoms and rights for the West, and raises the concern that these will become increasingly fragile as religion, and Christianity in particular, become increasingly marginalized in Europe. The essay was published in Religion in the Public Sphere: Proceedings of the 2010 Conference of the European Society for Philosophy of Religion (2011).
September 12, 2011
Religious Freedom Project Director Thomas Farr argues that American foreign policy is woefully -- perhaps dangerously -- religiously illiterate. Particularly vis a vis the Muslim world, America continues to be too hung up on the strict "wall" between church and state. Our aversion to religion in politics doesn't reflect reality, however: the world, particularly the Muslim world, is a religious place and we must learn to "contend intellectually" with religion in the public sphere. The longer we allow our "learned repugnance to religion" to hamstring existing and new foreign policy initiatives, the more ineffective our engagement will be. Rather than insisting ad nauseum on building up walls between religion and politics, we must instead cultivate the "twin tolerances" of government for religion and religion for government. Only then can America pursue effective policy and political religion become a liberalizing force rather than a threatening one.
September 6, 2011
Books & Culture
By: Robert Joustra
"...one of the most important books of the year."
By: Robert Joustra
"...one of the most important books of the year."
August 15, 2011
"One or two judges recently have said religion shouldn’t be playing a big part in public life because it is basically subjective, irrational, and not based on evidence — and that, as a philosopher of religion, I utterly reject."
Oxford University professor and Religious Freedom Project associate scholar Roger Trigg sits down with Terence Handley MacMath of the Church Times, the weekly newspaper of the Anglican Church, to speak about the state of religious freedom and the links between philosophy and religion.
Oxford University professor and Religious Freedom Project associate scholar Roger Trigg sits down with Terence Handley MacMath of the Church Times, the weekly newspaper of the Anglican Church, to speak about the state of religious freedom and the links between philosophy and religion.
July 8, 2011
Religious Freedom Project Director Tom Farr writes in this article that religious liberty is essential in the construction of stable and lasting liberal democracies. He argues that a successful regime of religious liberty has three characteristics: full equality under the law for religious minorities, limits on the majority's cultural and political dominance, and vigorous freedom of expression. It is the case around the world today that in states where Islam is the majority faith, religious freedom is still severely restricted. To promote the emergence of democracy in Muslim-majority states, US foreign policy makers and diplomats must make a variety of changes, such as: deepen their thinking about religion; institute mandatory training programs on religious freedom for Foreign Service officers; and make religious liberty a central foreign policy objective.
July 1, 2011
In this chapter Thomas F. Farr argues that religion will continue to affect social and political decisions throughout the world hence, U.S. policy makers should consider the deep impact that personal religious beliefs have on public issues. Farr contends that religious beliefs, while often private and personal do have very public implications and influence the socio-political and economic policies of citizens and countries. The public dimensions of religious beliefs and their socio-political impact is precisely the reason to consider religion a significant part of U.S. foreign policy. The author notes that one method to engage religion seriously is to learn about the religious teachings, customs, and norms of various traditions throughout the world. When U.S. foreign policy has a better understanding of religious ideology and belief systems it has the potential to be more effective in the international community.
July 1, 2011
In this chapter, Daniel Philpott argues that creating long-term sustainable peacebuilding institutions in areas of conflict is one of the greatest challenges for U.S. foreign policy. Philpott proposes that religious actors become more active in peacebuilding debates and activities in post-conflict regions and lend their expertise and insight to make these institutions more effective. The author presents an “ethic of peacebuilding” that he suggests could contribute to the expansion of “faith-based diplomacy” in Iraq. The foundational concept of the ethic is the notion of reconciliation based on the biblical and philosophical traditions of Christianity. Philpott also contends that recent years have witnessed the prominence of the word “reconciliation” which is growing more common in the diplomatic and policy-making community. However, Philpott suggests that his “ethic of peacebuilding” goes beyond the preliminary forms of reconciliation and incorporates stability and justice as a means of achieving sustainable peace in Iraq.
June 23, 2011
Religious concerns stand at the center of international politics, yet key paradigms in international relations, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism, barely consider religion in their analysis of political subjects. The essays in this collection attempt to rectify this gap in theory. Authored by leading scholars and edited by Jack Snyder, with contributions from Religious Freedom Project Associate Director Timothy Shah and Associate Scholars Daniel Philpott and Monica Duffy Toft, Religion and International Relations Theory introduces models that integrate religion into the study of international politics and connect religion to a rising form of populist politics in the developing world.
June 20, 2011
Stuart Croft reviews "God and Global Order: The Power of Religion in American Foreign Policy" in the Winter 2011 volume of the Journal of Church and State. The book, edited by Jonathan Chaplin with Robert Joustra, includes chapters by Religious Freedom Project Director Tom Farr and Religious Freedom Project Associate Scholar Daniel Philpott. The volume offers a critique of the current resistance of American foreign policy actors to substantially integrate the knowledge of religion into its diplomatic practices and warns of the consequences to American international interests sustained ignorance of this issue could produce.
June 1, 2011
Published in the First Quarter 2011 issue of Global Magazine, Mona Siddiqui's article "Religion and Secularism are Interdependent in Global Civil Society" looks to challenge common misconceptions about religions and secularization. Siddiqui questions the concept that secularism and religion are at odds, and argues that the post-9/11 discussion is not about religion in the public square but about how that religion is manifested.
June 1, 2011
In this review published in the Journal of Church and State, Roger Trigg reviews the book Religious Voices in Public Faces, edited by Nigel Biggar and Linda Hogan. The book looks at the issue of religion in public life from a global perspective, containing contributions from authors from several Western countries. From the perspectives of philosophy and theology, the contributors examine issues such as the proper place of religious belief in the public sphere, whether establishment of a national church, as is the case in England, is good, and the implications of religious freedom on the ability of religious actors to engage other voices in the public sphere. A common theme throughout the book is the importance of finding space for "reasonable" conversation between religious and secular actors, a question to which the contributors offer a range of possible solutions.
March 1, 2011
Co-authored by Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shah, God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics examines the political influence of religion around the world. The authors consider issues ranging from technology, globalization, democratization, and peacebuilding to civil war and terrorism, using case studies to illustrate and support their analysis. The book also offers suggestions for addressing the challenges and opportunities created by resurgent religion. The book was supported by the work of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs's Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, supported by the Luce Foundation.
April 29, 2009
Heated debates are not unusual when confronting tough medical issues where it seems that moral and religious perspectives often erupt in conflict with philosophical or political positions. In The Sanctity of Human Life, Jewish theologian David Novak acknowledges that it is impossible not to take into account the theological view of human life. He argues that the challenge is how to present a religious perspective to nonreligious people. In doing so, he shows that the two positions -- the theological and the philosophical -- aren't as far apart as they may seem.
January 1, 2009
In Defense of Religious Liberty contains David Novak’s vigorous - and paradoxical - argument that the primacy of divine law is the best foundation for a secular, multicultural democracy. In political, philosophical, and theological terms, Novak presents his claim, which will astound both liberal and conservative advocates of democracy. He shows how the universal norms of divine law are knowable as natural law, and that they are the best formulations of the human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He sees the assertion of these norms as including an explicit recognition of God as cosmic lawgiver. Furthermore, Novak maintains that the seemingly disparate ideas of divine command, natural law, and human rights can be integrated into an overall political theory.
September 26, 2005
The Jewish Social Contract begins by asking how a traditional Jew can participate politically and socially and in good faith in a modern democratic society, and ends by proposing a broad, inclusive notion of secularity.
July 1, 2005
At a time when religion is often seen as necessarily divisive, Talking with Christians exhibits a sustained Jewish theological encounter with Christianity by one of the world’s leading Jewish theologians.
David Novak’s compelling reflections explore the central theological concerns of Judaism and Christianity and provide a unique Jewish perspective on Jewish-Christian dialogue. Novak ranges broadly over what matters most in interfaith discussion, including the nature of revelation and the methods of a true theological dialogue that does not slip into relativism. Alongside studies of great Christian theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth, and Paul Tillich, Novak offers empathetic treatments of contemporary issues, including the controversial canonization of Jewish convert Edith Stein and the moral crisis of the West after the Holocaust. His Talking with Christians is a significant sign of hope for all people of faith who recognize the need to learn from one another.
David Novak’s compelling reflections explore the central theological concerns of Judaism and Christianity and provide a unique Jewish perspective on Jewish-Christian dialogue. Novak ranges broadly over what matters most in interfaith discussion, including the nature of revelation and the methods of a true theological dialogue that does not slip into relativism. Alongside studies of great Christian theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, Karl Barth, and Paul Tillich, Novak offers empathetic treatments of contemporary issues, including the controversial canonization of Jewish convert Edith Stein and the moral crisis of the West after the Holocaust. His Talking with Christians is a significant sign of hope for all people of faith who recognize the need to learn from one another.