The Possibility of Religious Freedom: Early Natural Law and the Abrahamic Faiths

Religious freedom is a universally held human right and a flash point in the political sphere, but it has resisted scholarly efforts to define its parameters. Taliaferro's book "The Possibility of Religious Freedom" explores a different way of examining the tensions between the aims of religion and the needs of political communities by drawing on classical natural law to develop a new, practical theory of religious freedom for the modern world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 179 pages
Publication date: 19 May 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Religious freedom is a highly contentious and debated human right in contemporary public discourse. It is simultaneously recognized as a universal human entitlement and a focal point of political contention. Despite scholarly endeavors to establish its boundaries, religious freedom has proven elusive to precise definition. In his work, Taliaferro presents a unique approach to examining the tensions between the aims of religion and the requirements of political communities. He argues that religious freedom is particularly challenging to uphold due to its reliance on two competing conceptions: human and divine. Taliaferro draws upon classical natural law to develop a novel and practical theory of religious freedom for the modern world. By examining conceptions of law from various sources, such as Sophocles' Antigone, Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, Ibn Rushd's Middle Commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric, and Tertullian's writings, The Possibility of Religious Freedom explores how expanding our understanding of law to incorporate these theories can reconcile conflicts between human and divine law and establish a robust foundation for religious liberty in the diverse and pluralistic context of modernity.

Weight: 272g
Dimension: 152 x 227 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781108439183