Religious Freedom and (and in) Institutions

Abstract:     
This paper is a contribution to a volume of essays dealing with a range of contemporary challenges – challenges posed by new questions, and by new forces – to religious liberty. It considers the role that religious communities, groups, and associations play – and the role that they should they play – in our thinking and conversations about religious freedom and church-state relations. And, its primary claim is that the values and goods that the First Amendment’s Religion Clauses embody and protect are well served by a civil-society landscape that is thick with churches (and mediating institutions and associations of all kinds) and by legal rules that reflect their importance. These institutions contribute in distinctive ways to the reality of religious freedom under law.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: establishment clause, first amendment, religious freedom, religious liberty, separation of church and state

JEL Classification: K10, K19, K39

Accepted Paper Series