Measuring Religious Freedom Globally: Interview with Jonathan Fox

Religion and State Project founder and Bar-Ilan University professor Jonathan Fox explains how state policies concerning religion and religious freedom can be measured empirically. Fox discusses what prompts governments to discriminate against certain (or all) religions and why government support of religion is a popular tactic to control it. He also provides nuanced perspectives on the interplay of democratic and secular governments and religious freedom, drawing on legal decisions involving religious freedom and women’s rights, bodily integrity, and the humane treatment of animals.

(more…)

Continue Reading Measuring Religious Freedom Globally: Interview with Jonathan Fox

Deaton, Deenen, and Integrity and Role of Catholic Social Teaching

Ingeborg G. Gabriel is a professor emerita at the University of Vienna.

The debate in the United States and beyond on liberalism has taken a rather disconcerting turn, in which concepts from Catholic Social Teaching (CST) are invoked. The following post is an attempt to sketch this phenomenon drawing on ideas of economist Angus Deaton and philosopher Patrick Deneen. Can CST, which is also high on the agenda of the present pontiff Leo XIV, cut a trail through the jungle of these ideas?

(more…)

Continue Reading Deaton, Deenen, and Integrity and Role of Catholic Social Teaching

Standing Up for Everyone, Standing by the Vulnerable: An Interview with Brett Scharffs and Elizabeth Clark

ICLRS Director Brett G. Scharffs and Associate Director Elizabeth A. Clark discuss the concept behind and mission of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. They share personal memories of the Center’s beginnings; recount the work of its founding director, W. Cole Durham, Jr.; and explain the Center’s activities, the sensitivities of cross-cultural dialogue, the value of patience, and the best compliment ever paid to the Center. The interview is in honor of and dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the ICLRS, which was founded 1 January 2000.

(more…)

Continue Reading Standing Up for Everyone, Standing by the Vulnerable: An Interview with Brett Scharffs and Elizabeth Clark