Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience

The dialogue around religious freedom in the United States has become hopelessly polarized. Less than three decades after the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed Congress by near unanimous margins, “religious freedom” is a buzzword in some of the country’s most divisive cultural conflicts. Those on the right tend to advocate for robust protections for religious freedom in education, employment, health care, and more, while those on the left generally see appeals for religious freedom as a cover for invidious discrimination or disobedience of generally applicable laws. Lather, rinse, repeat. Jack Rakove’s Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience commendably tries to turn down the temperature on this fiery debate. Rakove digs deeply into the historical context of free exercise, from its philosophical underpinnings in Europe to its doctrinal development via the US Constitution. He argues that this context must inform our contemporary interpretation of religious freedom, one that is not reactive to the latest culture war conflicts but rather reflective of a uniquely American idea.

Conscience · Epistemology · First amendment · Free Exercise Clause · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology