Suchergebnisse

Benjamin Constant's famous lecture comparing ancient and modern liberty can be better understood if it is read alongside a set of unpublished lectures on ancient religion that he delivered one year earlier. Those lectures suggest that Constant's commitment to modern liberty was based in part on his deep anxieties about religious freedom, and that he valued religious freedom because he thought the "religious sentiment" was an important manifestation of a natural human capacity for self-development. In putting religion and self-development at the heart of his vision, he tried to show that modern liberty could have a positive moral or spiritual purpose beyond merely assuring people freedom from interference in the pursuit of their interests.

'The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America' by Kevin Phillips is reviewed.

Mullan reviews 'Politics, Religion and the British Revolutions: The Mind of Samuel Rutherford' by John Coffey.

ABSTRACT: Religion has played a huge role in the history of Ireland and Northern Ireland. There has been little comparative analysis, however, of the legal elements of this topic. This paper maps legal developments relating to religion to consider convergence and divergence since partition. It focuses on three distinct areas of engagement between law and religion: freedom of religion, religious discrimination, and ethical–moral claims with a religious dimension, such as abortion and contraception. The paper concludes that law's engagement with religion has differed markedly in some respects across the two jurisdictions, while remaining remarkably similar in others. While legal change since partition has sometimes been either an outcome or a reflection of underlying political, economic and social forces, at other times the law itself has been a major factor in social change. The paper concludes by considering forces that might drive further convergence or divergence on the island of Ireland.

The ban on discrimination against workers grounded on religion is a fundamental principle enshrined in the European Union's primary legislation and anti-discrimination law. However, currently, there is no binding provision at this level of legislation which imposes on employers to adopt reasonable accommodation based on this category. Many scholars promote the adoption of this measure based on religion. Still, the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice does not seem encouraging in this sense. In light of this situation, the article aims to investigate the reasons underlying the limitations of the hard law provisions and the implications of the shift from the level of the mandatory norm to that of policy and diversity management in accommodating religious diversity at work, with particular regard to Muslim women working in the private sector. European institutions seem to delegate the law-related function of social orientation to policy and diversity management. Various critical issues emerge from this process of de-juridification, although diversity management generates some good practices, also within the so-called Diversity Charters. With the aim to support the implementation of reasonable religion-based accommodation, this article suggests rethinking the anti-discrimination law and diversity management from an intercultural perspective.

This comparative analysis of the constitutional law of religion-state relations in the United States and Germany focuses on the principle of state neutrality. A strong emphasis on state neutrality, a notoriously ambiguous concept, is a shared feature in the constitutional jurisprudence of the US Supreme Court and the German Federal Constitutional Court, but neutrality does not have the same meaning in both systems. In Germany neutrality tends to indicate more distance between church and state, whereas the opposite is the case in the United States. Neutrality also has other meanings in both systems, making straightforward comparison more difficult than it might seem. Although the underlying trajectory of neutrality is different in both countries, the discussion of neutrality breaks down into largely parallel themes. By examining those themes in a comparative perspective, the meaning of state neutrality in religion-state relations can be delineated

In this paper, we will refer to the historical vicissitudes of the Greek national character since the 19th century signposting two main versions: an antinomic but no less unified national character characterized by internal contrasts vis-à-vis the alleged uni-dimensional canon of western rationality, on the one hand, and a clash of national habitus into two opposite national identities – two modal characters – on the other. Further on, we shall discuss the role of national symbols such as the flag and parades as emotional constituents of nationalism as political religion conferring fragile legitimacy to the state as long as their meaning is under negotiation.

Hunt reviews 'Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions' by Daniel C. Maguire.

Dreisbach reviews 'Religion and the Continental Congress, 1774-1789: Contributions to Original Intent' by Derek H. Davis.

'Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America' by James W. Fraser is reviewed.

'Piety, Power, and Politics: Religion and Nation Formation in Guatemala 1821-1871' by Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez is reviewed.

Flora reviews 'Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador's Civil War' by Anna L. Peterson.

Payne reviews 'Cosmos in the Chaos: Philip Schaff's Interpretation of Nineteenth-Century American Religion' by Stephen R. Graham.