Religious Freedom, Flourishing Societies, and the Role of Law

Western societies are witnessing a religious revival. In jurisdictions that have closely guarded the separation between public and private—placing the language of rights and freedoms in the former and religion in the latter—mounting waves of people disappointed by this dichotomy are reconsidering religion. In countries such as France, they do not just join a new religion or rediscover the one they were raised in; they embrace religion as a moral compass and a source of meaning for their private and public life. Dissatisfied with the overwhelming narrative of rights and liberties as the unifying notions of a polity, and with the sphere of individual freedoms they provide, they reach out for something that can connect them with their fellow human beings and with something beyond them. 

This well-documented phenomenon across the West particularly challenges two of the basic premises upon which legal and political institutions have developed for centuries.

(I) On the one hand, finding that individual freedoms are not enough challenges the view of a polity as a group of individuals primarily concerned with their own personal fulfillment and who first and foremost need space for self-determination. It suggests that within the political dimension individuals also associate with others because they aim to share parts of their life and pursue common goods that are not simply the reflection of the good of each individual.

(II) On the other hand, finding in religion and religious experience something that is also valuable for public life suggests a new reconsideration of the meaning of freedom—and especially of religious freedom. Instead of considering religious freedom as just a necessity for the individual, we could consider what it contributes to public life. In other words, we could look at religious freedom from a teleological point of view, rather than just a utilitarian or deontological perspective. What is the benefit religious freedom brings not just to the individual but also to the community at large?

Workshop organizers are Brett Scharffs, Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law, and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School; Andrea Pin, Full Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Padova Law School; and Luca Vanoni, Full Professor of Comparative Public Law, University of Milan.

See Program and Participant Directory below.

Program

Participant Directory