On April 2nd, Dallas District Court Judge Martin Hoffman ruled that it is legal to pray for God to harm…
Harmful prayer?
law and religion
Christian genealogies of religious freedom
As a historian of religion, much of my recent work has focused on tracing the genealogy of what we call…
What is religious freedom supposed to free?
What is religious freedom supposed to free? That is, what is the operant understanding of “religion” behind the claims of…
Israel, secularism, and democracy
At Harvard Law School, faculty members Noah Feldman and Duncan Kennedy recently debated the question "Can Israel Be Both Jewish…
The world that Smith made
There is much that could be said about the history of the Catholic Church and its dedication to the defense…
Hosanna-Tabor in the religious freedom Panopticon
Michel Foucault famously describes Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon as a “cruel, ingenious cage” to be understood not as a “dream building…
Women’s Rights, Muslim Family Law, and the Politics of Consent
Lila Abu-Lughod and Anumpama Rao---editors of Women’s Rights, Muslim Family Law, and the Politics of Consent, a special issue of…
NYC religious groups vacate public schools and march in protest
The past few months have been a wild ride for church-state issues in the U.S. The Hosanna-Tabor decision upheld the…
Is religion special?
In Religion Dispatches, Katherine Stewart asks what the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C. decision can tell us…
Religion in public schools
In Reuters, journalist Katherine Stewart gives her thoughts regarding American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) recently filed lawsuit against New Heights…