Recent Posts

May 16th, 2012

The bishops, the sisters, and religious freedom

posted by Elizabeth A. Castelli

At its March 2012 meeting, the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty: A Statement on Religious Liberty,” a document drafted by the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.

Read The bishops, the sisters, and religious freedom

May 11th, 2012

Everson’s Children

posted by Ann Pellegrini

May 8th, 2012

Reading religious freedom in Sri Lanka

posted by Benjamin Schonthal

May 3rd, 2012

Secularism and the freedom to transform lives

posted by Samia Huq

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March 1st – April 30th, 2012

The politics of religious freedom

Received wisdom from across the political spectrum suggests that securing religious freedom results in peaceful co-existence and ensures individual and associational flourishing vis-à-vis the state. Meanwhile, a deficit of religious freedom is seen as a driving force behind—if not the proximate cause of—insecurity and violence. The logic of these assumptions is currently being used to justify a wide range of well-funded public and private interventions in many parts of the world.

But what is religious freedom, and why are we talking about it now?

Read inaugural posts by Peter Danchin, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Saba Mahmood, and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan.

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April 27th, 2012

Romney and the two holy lands

posted by Shalom L. Goldman

Though many Evangelicals are uncomfortable with Romney’s positions on some issues, his enthusiasm for the Israeli leadership—“Bibi Netanyahu and I are old friends,” Romney said recently, using Netanyahu’s nickname—resonates with the conservative Evangelical base. He made that claim in an interview in mid-March on an Alabama radio program, “The Rick & Bubba Show.” But on that very show, his enthusiasm for Israel led to tough questions for the candidate. As a Mormon, didn’t he believe that America, not Israel, was the Promised Land?

Read Romney and the two holy lands

Featured discussion

Frequencies

An interdisciplinary group of scholars engages Frequencies, a collective genealogy of spirituality featuring one hundred written entries and visual artworks that describe and represent expressions of “the spiritual.”

Featured publication

Testing Prayer: Science and Healing

In her latest work, Candy Gunther Brown analyzes prayer’s ability to heal, argues against the stereotypes of those who believe in faith-healing, and advocates for scientists to study prayer’s measurable effects on health.

Featured interview

Change over time

Robert W. Hefner discusses democracy, education, and Islamic law in Southeast Asia, making a subtle case for degrees of commensurability between a variety of religious and cultural traditions.