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Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on America's Tradition of Religious Equality
by Martha C. Nussbaum

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226716.Liberty_of_Conscience_The_Attack_on_America_s_Tradition_of_Religious_Equality?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on America's Tradition of Religious Equality" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1172871767m/226716.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226716.Liberty_of_Conscience_The_Attack_on_America_s_Tradition_of_Religious_Equality?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Liberty of Conscience: The Attack on America's Tradition of Religious Equality</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20757.Martha_C_Nussbaum">Martha C. Nussbaum</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21994287?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars Full disclosure statement Roger Williams is one of my greatest heroes and obviously one of law professor Nussbaum's as well since she uses him as her exemplar here.. Somehow it seems appropriate rather than ironic that I am writing this in the same week that the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a civil rights rather than a religious issue. It has taken me a while to sort out the many things here - not all of them written in as orderly a fashion as I might have wished. Still this is an important book that I earnestly recommend in this political time.
 
 As the United States moves into the 21st century, it is clear that the American population now represents an ethnic and religious diversity far beyond anything the framers of the Constitution ever could have imagined. Given this reality, what is the best way to define the extent of the constitutional right to religious freedom and the accompanying prohibition against religious establishment, while maintaining respect for the nation’s growing diversity of religious belief and unbelief?
 
 In her new book, Liberty of Conscience, the legal scholar Martha Nussbaum seeks to answer this question by mounting a defense of the American tradition of religious equality. Nussbaum makes a good argument for John Rawls' "overlapping consensus" in discussing equality between the religion clauses in the First Amendment She argues this tradition is threatened, on the one hand, by attempts on the religious right to “push to institutionalize Christian evangelical fundamentalism and its near relatives as our state religion,” suggesting that those who do not share the religious values they champion are “less than fully American and less than fully equal.” On the other hand, the tradition also is being undermined by those on the left who are motivated by an “arrogant secularism,” which demonstrates a contempt for religious faith and religious believers by insisting on a vision of the “neutral” public square that essentially favors non-religion over religion.
 
 In Nussbaum’s view, the appropriate way to understand the religion clauses of the First Amendment is to see them as underlying a tradition rooted in principles of liberty and equality. Citizens must be provided a space in which they are free to act or refrain from acting based on their most deeply held beliefs. Indeed, respecting freedom of conscience is integral to demonstrating real respect for others as human beings.
 
 Contents: A tradition under threat -- Living together : the roots of respect -- Proclaiming equality : religion in the new nation -- The struggle over accommodation -- Fearing strangers -- The establishment clause : school prayer, public displays -- Aid to sectarian schools : the search for fairness -- Contemporary controversies : the pledge, evolution, imagination, gay marriage, fear of Muslims.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/354189?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Ginnie's review
rating:
bookshelves: law, religion
recommended for: all who care about the religion clauses of the First Amendment

Full disclosure statement Roger Williams is one of my greatest heroes and obviously one of law professor Nussbaum's as well since she uses him as her exemplar here.. Somehow it seems appropriate rather than ironic that I am writing this in the same week that the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a civil rights rather than a religious issue. It has taken me a while to sort out the many things here - not all of them written in as orderly a fashion as I might have wished. Still this is an important book that I earnestly recommend in this political time.

As the United States moves into the 21st century, it is clear that the American population now represents an ethnic and religious diversity far beyond anything the framers of the Constitution ever could have imagined. Given this reality, what is the best way to define the extent of the constitutional right to religious freedom and the accompanying prohibition against religious establishment, while mai...more Full disclosure statement Roger Williams is one of my greatest heroes and obviously one of law professor Nussbaum's as well since she uses him as her exemplar here.. Somehow it seems appropriate rather than ironic that I am writing this in the same week that the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a civil rights rather than a religious issue. It has taken me a while to sort out the many things here - not all of them written in as orderly a fashion as I might have wished. Still this is an important book that I earnestly recommend in this political time.

As the United States moves into the 21st century, it is clear that the American population now represents an ethnic and religious diversity far beyond anything the framers of the Constitution ever could have imagined. Given this reality, what is the best way to define the extent of the constitutional right to religious freedom and the accompanying prohibition against religious establishment, while maintaining respect for the nation’s growing diversity of religious belief and unbelief?

In her new book, Liberty of Conscience, the legal scholar Martha Nussbaum seeks to answer this question by mounting a defense of the American tradition of religious equality. Nussbaum makes a good argument for John Rawls' "overlapping consensus" in discussing equality between the religion clauses in the First Amendment She argues this tradition is threatened, on the one hand, by attempts on the religious right to “push to institutionalize Christian evangelical fundamentalism and its near relatives as our state religion,” suggesting that those who do not share the religious values they champion are “less than fully American and less than fully equal.” On the other hand, the tradition also is being undermined by those on the left who are motivated by an “arrogant secularism,” which demonstrates a contempt for religious faith and religious believers by insisting on a vision of the “neutral” public square that essentially favors non-religion over religion.

In Nussbaum’s view, the appropriate way to understand the religion clauses of the First Amendment is to see them as underlying a tradition rooted in principles of liberty and equality. Citizens must be provided a space in which they are free to act or refrain from acting based on their most deeply held beliefs. Indeed, respecting freedom of conscience is integral to demonstrating real respect for others as human beings.

Contents: A tradition under threat -- Living together : the roots of respect -- Proclaiming equality : religion in the new nation -- The struggle over accommodation -- Fearing strangers -- The establishment clause : school prayer, public displays -- Aid to sectarian schools : the search for fairness -- Contemporary controversies : the pledge, evolution, imagination, gay marriage, fear of Muslims....less

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message 1: by Erik

05/17/2008 07:13AM

So what did you think of this one, Ginnie? Finished reading? And was it well written? Righ now, one of the books I'm reading is AMERICA'S CONSTITITUION: A BIOGRAPHY by Akhil Reed Amar. It's quite good and quite readable. Anyhoo, looking forward to your review.