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List of contents
Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Christian contributions to the development of rights and liberties in the Western legal tradition; 2. Magna Cartas old and new: rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law; 3. Natural law and natural rights in the early Protestant tradition; 4. 'A most mild and equitable establishment of religion': religious freedom in Massachusetts, 1780-1833; 5. Historical foundations and enduring fundamentals of American religious freedom; 6. Balancing the guarantees of no establishment and free exercise of religion in American education; 7. Tax exemption of religious property: historical anomaly or valid constitutional practice? 8. Faith in Strasbourg? Religious freedom in the European Court of Human Rights; 9. Meet the new boss of religious freedom: the new cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union; Concluding reflections: toward a Christian defense of human rights and religious freedom today; Index.
About the author
John Witte, Jr. is Woodruff University Professor, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. A world-class scholar of legal history, human rights, and law and religion, he has published 300 articles and forty books. Recent works include The Western Case for the Monogamy Over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015), Christianity and Family Law (Cambridge, 2017), and Church, State, and Family (Cambridge, 2021).
Summary
This book traces the religious sources and dimensions of human rights and the complex interaction of human rights and religious freedom norms historically and today. It also answers various modern critics who see human rights as a betrayal of Christianity and religious freedom as a betrayal of human rights.
Additional text
'In these eloquent essays, John Witte explores the history of the right to religious liberty and highlights the crucial role this 'first freedom' plays in securing and safeguarding human rights generally. Looking both back in time and around the world, Witte tells the story and identifies the foundations of human rights and defends their centrality in our contemporary context. In his lucid and lively way, he defends a robust pluralism, a respectful politics, and the right of religious conscience for all.' Richard W. Garnett, Notre Dame Law School
