Since 1982, the Center for the Study of Law and Religion's publications in multiple languages have been the Center's most visible and enduring contribution to the global conversation about law and religion. CSLR now edits three book series and an international journal, and its faculty and research projects have produced more than 300 books published by leading university and trade presses. CSLR faculty, scholars, and students also publish widely in journals of law, the humanities, and social sciences, and have edited several journal symposia on discrete law and religion themes.
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Recruiting Young Love: How Christians Talk About Homosexuality
Mark D. Jordan
In the view of many Christians, the teenage years are simultaneously the most dangerous and the most promising. At the very moment when teens are trying to establish a sense of identity and belonging, they are beset by temptation on all sides—from the pressure of their peers to the nihilism and materialism of popular culture. Add the specter of homosexuality to the mix, and you’ve got a situation ripe for worry, sermonizing, and exploitation. In
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Religious Liberty, Volume 2: The Free Exercise Clause
Douglas Laycock
One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious liberty cases in the U.S. appellate courts and Supreme Court. His noteworthy scholarly and popular writings are being collected in four comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty. This second volume, The Free Exercise Clause, includes articles, amicus briefs, and court documents relating to regulatory exemptions under the Constitution, the right to church autonomy,
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The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times
Stephen G. Post
The world's religions affirm it to be so and recent research across a number of disciplines tell us that "Helping others not only benefits those we assist but is good for us as well." The recent and astonishingly generous outpouring of help and donations in response to the earthquake in Haiti is a clear demonstration of this phenomenon, but what if we could be convinced to make helping others a way of life, even when times are hard?
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Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction
John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander
Combining Jewish, Greek, and Roman teachings with the radical new teachings of Christ and St. Paul, Christianity helped to cultivate the cardinal ideas of dignity, equality, liberty and democracy that ground the modern human rights paradigm. Christianity also helped shape the law of public, private, penal, and procedural rights that anchor modern legal systems in the West and beyond. This collection of essays explores these Christian contributions to human rights through the perspectives of jurisprudence,
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Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction
John Witte Jr. and M. Christian Green
The relationship between religion and human rights is both complex and inextricable. While most of the world's religions have supported violence, repression, and prejudice, each has also played a crucial role in the modern struggle for universal human rights. Most importantly, religions provide the essential sources and scales of dignity and responsibility, shame and respect, restraint and regret, restitution and reconciliation that a human rights regime needs to survive and flourish in any culture. This
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Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari`a
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
What should be the place of shari'a-Islamic religious law in predominantly Muslim societies of the world? In this ambitious and topical book, a Muslim scholar and human rights activist envisions a positive and sustainable role for shari'a, based on a profound rethinking of the relationship between religion and the secular state in all societies.
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Muslims and Global Justice
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
Over the course of his distinguished career, legal scholar Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im has sought to reconcile his identity as a Muslim with his commitment to universal human rights. In Muslims and Global Justice, he advances the theme of global justice from an Islamic perspective, critically examining the role that Muslims must play in the development of a pragmatic, rights-based framework for justice. An-Na'im opens this collection of essays with a chapter on Islamic ambivalence toward
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Innovation in Jewish Law: A Case Study of Chiddush in Havineinu
Michael J. Broyde
Havineinu', an abridged version of the daily prayer (Shemoneh Esreh), was once a useful, well known prayer said in pressing situations. Because it is brief, it is an ideal prayer for dangerous situations where one's ability to pray or concentrate on the longer text of the daily prayer is compromised. Yet, over the last several hundred years, the recitation of 'Havineinu' has functionally ceased. This book addresses the legal analysis used to explain that change.
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God and the Art of Happiness
Ellen T. Charry
Western Christians are generally skittish about happiness, observes Ellen Charry. They live in the hope of heaven but are somewhat nervous about experiencing too much joy this side of paradise. Charry's God and the Art of Happiness questions this way of thinking, reviewing the history of the theological conversation about happiness and offering a constructive proposal for considering it anew. After taking an introductory look at ancient Greek philosophy, Charry surveys the treatment of God
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The New Global Law
Rafael Domingo
The dislocations of the worldwide economic crisis, the necessity of a system of global justice to address crimes against humanity, and the notorious 'democratic deficit' of international institutions highlight the need for an innovative and truly global legal system, one that permits humanity to re-order itself according to acknowledged global needs and evolving consciousness. A new global law will constitute, by itself, a genuine legal order and will not be limited to a handful of
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Lex Charitatis: A Juristic Disquisition on Law in the Theology of Martin Luther
Johannes Heckel
This substantial work by one of Europe's most respected twentieth-century legal minds unpacks Luther's doctrine of law, showing how it derived from his central theological concern, justification by faith.
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Religious Liberty, Volume 1: Overviews and History
Douglas Laycock
One of the most respected and influential scholars of religious liberty in our time, Douglas Laycock has argued many crucial religious liberty cases in the U.S. appellate courts and Supreme Court. His noteworthy scholarly and popular writings are being collected in four comprehensive volumes under the title Religious Liberty. This first volume gives the big picture of religious liberty in the United States, fitting a vast range of disparate disputes into a coherent pattern --
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Building Cultures of Trust
Martin E. Marty
American society is experiencing a profound crisis of trust, from government to mass media to educational and religious institutions. Whether we acknowledge it or not, this crisis affects us all. In Building Cultures of Trust Martin Marty proposes ways to improve the conditions for trust at what might be called the "grassroots" level. He suggests that it makes a difference if citizens put energy into inventing, developing, and encouraging "cultures of trust" in all areas
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Ministers of the Law: A Natural Law Theory of Legal Authority
Jean Porter
In Ministers of the Law Jean Porter articulates a theory of legal authority derived from the natural law tradition. As she points out, the legal authority of most traditions rests on their own internal structures, independent of extralegal considerations -- legal houses built on sand, as it were. Natural law tradition, on the other hand, offers a basis for legal authority that goes beyond mere arbitrary commands or social conventions, offering some extralegal authority without
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Implementation of International Law in the United States
Johan D. van der Vyver
Even though the Constitution proclaims treaties entered into by the United States to be part of the supreme law of the land and authorises prosecution of offences against the law of nation in federal courts, the United States has had a checkered record in ratifying human rights instruments, in upholding decisions of international tribunals, and indeed in submitting itself to the jurisdiction of such tribunals. It refused to uphold judgments of the International Court of
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Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
This probing collection of essays bring together a stellar group of Muslim and Christian, African and Western scholars. Together they explore the question, "Where does one community's right to commend itself to others leave off, and another community's right to be left alone begin?"
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The Nature and Functions of Law, 7th Edition
Harold J. Berman and Samir N. Saliba
This book focuses on the special character of law in performing certain social functions. Presented are the salient aspects of criminal and civil procedure, alternative dispute resolution, aspects of judicial reasoning on the basis of precedents, especially in cases of manufacturer's liability in tort, certain aspects of the law of contracts, and aspects of international human rights law, including race law, and gender law, both at the national and international level-not in order to present
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Children and Childhood in American Religions
Don S. Browning and Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore
Whether First Communion or bar mitzvah, religious traditions play a central role in the lives of many American children. In this collection of essays, leading scholars reveal for the first time how various religions interpret, reconstruct, and mediate their traditions to help guide children and their parents in navigating the opportunities and challenges of American life. Only by discussing the unique challenges faced by all religions, and their followers, can we take the first step
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The Priority of Love: Christian Charity and Social Justice
Timothy P. Jackson
This book explores the relation between agape (or Christian charity) and social justice. Timothy Jackson defines agape as the central virtue in Christian ethical thought and action and applies his insights to three concrete issues: political violence, forgiveness, and abortion. Taking his primary cue from the New Testament while drawing extensively from contemporary theology and philosophy, Jackson identifies three features of Christian charity: unconditional commitment to the good of others, equal regard for others’ well-being,
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The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy
Michael J. Perry
In this important new work in political and constitutional theory, Michael Perry elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy: the moral convictions and commitments that in a liberal democracy should govern decisions about what laws to enact and what policies to pursue. The fundamental questions addressed in this book concern (1) the grounding, (2) the content, (3) the implications for one or another moral controversy, and (4) the judicial enforcement
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