The books selected for this forum traverse the fields of environmental studies, Islamic studies, and the philosophy of religion. They…
Nature and normativity: New inquiries into the natural world
natural law
Black Natural Law: An introduction
We are accustomed to hearing stories and seeing images of racial injustice: the white police officer assaulting the black schoolgirl,…
Truth and triviality: Christianity, natural law, and human rights
For every phenomenon there is an indefinite, if not infinite, number of both continuities and discontinuities with what came before.…
From personalism to liberalism?
In his paper “Personalism, Community and the Origins of Human Rights,” Samuel Moyn argues that a relatively understudied current of…
Not Church history?
When Samuel Moyn talks about Church history, it is usually not meant as a compliment. He has shaken up the…
“Sorry comforters” and the new Natural Law
I read the Chicago Council Task Force Report, “Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for U.S. Foreign Policy,” as…
Dean of natural law
In the New York Times Magazine, David Kirkpatrick writes about Robert P. George, one of the architects of the recently-unveiled…
Justice and theism
The central claim of Nicholas Wolsterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs is that justice is based on natural human rights that inhere…
“Call it X”
I am grateful for the kind and thoughtful comments posted at The Immanent Frame about Islam and the Secular State.…
Arguing with An-Na`im
What is interesting about An-Na`im's arguments is that they ground the case for the secular state not in the Quran,…