Democracy and Religious Freedom: Old and New Challenges – Kyiv, 5-6 August 2010

Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Professor Elizabeth A. Sewell, Director and Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University, joined a large number of scholars from across Ukraine and Russia, regional religious affairs officials from Ukraine, and scholars from Western Europe for a conference “Democracy and Religious Freedom: Old and New Challenges,” held in Kyiv on 5 & 6 August 2010.  The conference was co-sponsored by the Center in association with the Department of Religion, Institute of Philosophy, National Academic of Sciences, Ukraine; Coordinating Council of Countries of CIS and Baltics for Theoretical and Practical Religious Studies; and the Ukrainan Association of Researchers of Religion. Discussion largely focused on challenges to religious freedom in contemporary Ukraine and Russia, bringing to bear upon the matter a variety of comparative, religious, and philosophical perspectives. Conference papers and other relevant articles were published in advance of and distributed at the conference.