Religious Liberty: Essays on First Amendment Law

Religious Liberty: Essays on First Amendment Law
Daniel N. Robinson and Richard N. Williams, eds.
Cambridge University Press, 2016

The principal aim of the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment was to preclude congressional imposition of a national church. A balance was sought between states’ rights and the rights of individuals to exercise their religious conscience. While the founding fathers were debating such issues, the potential for serious conflict was confined chiefly to variations among the dominant Christian sects. Today, issues of marriage, child bearing, cultural diversity, and corporate personhood, among others, suffuse constitutional jurisprudence, raising difficult questions regarding the nature of beliefs that qualify as ‘religious’, and the reach of law into the realm in which those beliefs are held. The essays collected in this volume explore in a selective and instructive way the intellectual and philosophical roots of religious liberty and contemporary confrontations between this liberty and the authority of secular law.

• Serves as a single source on religious liberty by providing a defense of it from a number of different contexts
• Readers on both sides of the issues can read analysis from leading scholars who offer varying perspectives on the topic
• Provides a timely treatment of the current issues surrounding religious liberty, with detailed analysis of recent legislation and judicial decisions

Table of Contents

Foreword Thomas Griffith
Introduction Daniel N. Robinson

1. Two concepts of liberty Robert P. George
2. Religious liberty: the first freedom Daniel N. Robinson
3. The creation and reconstruction of the First Amendment Akhil Reed Amar
4. Recasting the argument for religious freedom Hadley Arkes
5. Let us pray: Greece v. Galloway Gerard V. Bradley
6. What are we really arguing about when we argue about the freedom of the church? Michael P. Moreland
7. Our schizophrenic attitude towards corporate conscience Brett G. Scharffs
8. Religious freedom in the world today Roger Scruton
9. The first of all freedoms is liberty of conscience Michael Novak