Sociology of Religious Freedom

In 2025, the monograph “A Sociology of Religious Freedom” saw the light. In this series, Olga Breskaya, Giuseppe Giordan, and James T. Richardson, who co-authored the book, provide insights from their study. They define religious freedom as a multidimensional concept, located at the intersection of five areas of meaning: (a) the autonomy of individuals and religious groups, (b) the societal value of freedom of and from religion, (c) the normative principles of state-religion governance, (d) international human rights standards, and (e) the socio-legal impacts of the judicialization of religion. The combination of social and legal perspectives enriches both sociologists and lawyers with a better understanding of how religious freedom operates in times of secularization and the pluralization of Western societies.

Giordan’s posts  set up the theory of religious freedom and explain the aims of sociological studies of this human right. Borrowing from legal sociology, Richardson’s post focuses on the judicialization of religious freedom and the roles of American and European courts in shaping its scope and limits. Breskaya’s contribution discusses empirical methods of investigating religious freedom.

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Religious Freedom and Indigenous Rights: Global Perspectives

The Klamath River, which is of great historical and spiritual significance for the Yurok Tribe, flows through Oregon and Northern California (Photo: Istock).

This series provides comparative interdisciplinary analysis of indigenous spirituality and the legal challenges involved in its protection on national and international levels. Drawing on a variety of cases from the Americas, South Africa, and Australia, contributors discuss specificities of indigenous spirituality and theology, power dynamics behind the discussion of indigenous rights, the sacredness of natural objects for indigenous groups, the insufficiency of protections for indigenous believers within existing religious-freedom frameworks, and legal steps needed to strengthen these protections. This series is based on presentations given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 6–7 October 2025.

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“You Cannot Harm Your Brother”: Indigenous Rights in Pluriversal World

Cecilia Titizano is core faculty at NAITTS, an Indigenous learning community, and directs the Latina/o Theology and Ministry Leadership Network and the Instituto Hispano of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. This post is based on a presentation given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 6 October 2025.

The post is the part of the Religious Freedom and Indigenous Rights series

Andean Metaphysics: The Interdependence of All Things

In the Andes, everything is alive: plants, animals, water, and even mountains. They are all animated by the same Ajayu or Spirit and share the same organizing and pulsing life force. They all have awareness (each in their own way); they allcommunicate (each in their own fashion); and they all are endowed with a purpose particular to their place in Pacha (all that is). The Aymara and Quechua people describe reality or “what is” as an interconnected web of beings endowed with the same animating life force, where relations constitute beingness or, better yet, becoming (beingness in process). Pacha (all that is) is dynamic and ontologically relational, where relations have priority over substance. Hence, the interdependence of all beings is a constitutive reality of the Andean universe.

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