Around the world today, and especially in Euro-Atlantic contexts, we often hear the thesis that a resurgence of religion as…
Bridging normative worlds: Religion, politics, and the rule of law
Exchanges
Scholars are invited into conversation around a common theme or a recently published book. These are ongoing exchanges among leading thinkers across the social sciences and humanities.
Religion(s) and the rule of law: Let us compare mythologies
The glittering and hurting days are almost done Then let us compare mythologies I have learned my elaborate lie of…
Rule of law as imperial theology
Not only an instrument of power or a one-sided constraint on its use, the rule of law is also a…
Colonial reverberations in contemporary religious freedom promotion
The cacophony of sounds at Easter in contemporary Cyprus is tremendous. From fieldwork on the island in 2015, I recall…
Privatization of assisted reproductive technologies in the Islamic Republic of Iran
For most of its history, Islamic law has developed independently of the state, law-making being the sphere of legal scholars.…
Freedom struggles of China’s Christian rights lawyers
In 2008 or 2009, at an early stage of an extensive research program on criminal defense lawyers in China, I…
The rule of law never dies
"Law, religion, and state building" features essays by leading scholars and policy analysts who consider the entanglements of law, religion,…
Conducts of revolt: Refusing a Napoleonic politics of religion
One of the interesting things about religious nationalisms is their interchangeablity. I remember reading Peter van der Veer’s book, Religious…
Toward illiberal secularisms in Western francophone societies
Secularism requires that the state be separate from, and neutral vis-à-vis, religious groups. The state must also protect the religious…
Competing narratives of the “us” in “our culture and heritage”
Although 19.3 million people reported a Christian affiliation in the 2021 Canadian census (representing just over half of the Canadian…