Title
The Tragedy of Religious Freedom / Marc O. DeGirolami.
ISBN
9780674074118
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (316 p.)
Item Number
10.4159/harvard.9780674074118 doi
Call Number
KF4783 .D44 2013
Dewey Decimal Classification
342.7308/52
Summary
When it comes to questions of religion, legal scholars face a predicament. They often expect to resolve dilemmas according to general principles of equality, neutrality, or the separation of church and state. But such abstractions fail to do justice to the untidy welter of values at stake. Offering new views of how to understand and protect religious freedom in a democracy, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom challenges the idea that matters of law and religion should be referred to far-flung theories about the First Amendment. Examining a broad array of contemporary and more established Supreme Court rulings, Marc DeGirolami explains why conflicts implicating religious liberty are so emotionally fraught and deeply contested. Twenty-first-century realities of pluralism have outrun how scholars think about religious freedom, DeGirolami asserts. Scholars have not been candid enough about the tragic nature of the conflicts over religious liberty-the clash of opposing interests and aspirations they entail, and the limits of human reason to resolve intractable differences. The Tragedy of Religious Freedom seeks to turn our attention from abstracted, absolute values to concrete, historical realities. Social history, characterized by the struggles of lawyers engaged in the details of irreducible conflicts, represents the most promising avenue to negotiate legal conflicts over religion. In this volume, DeGirolami offers an approach to understanding religious liberty that is neither rigidly systematic nor ad hoc, but a middle path grounded in a pluralistic and historically informed perspective.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction
PART I: Religious Liberty and the Comedy of Legal Theory
CHAPTER 1: The Monists
CHAPTER 2: The Skeptics
PART II:Tragedy and History
CHAPTER 3:The Clash of Values of Religious Liberty
CHAPTER 4: The Inadequacy of Skepticism
CHAPTER 5: Loss, Sacrifice, and the Disposition of Custom
CHAPTER 6: The Need for Modest Movement
CHAPTER 7: The Conciliations of History
PART III: The Method of Tragedy and History
CHAPTER 8: The Challenge of Free Exercise
CHAPTER 9: Free Exercise Applications
CHAPTER 10: Establishment Clause Applications
CHAPTER 11: Objections and Replies
Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index