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Scruton on Icons, Brands, the Sacred, and the Profane

Roger Scruton is one of my favorite writers on aesthetics.  In this piece, he discusses a new book on icons, “From Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon,” by Martin Kemp.  Perhaps channeling a little Mircea Eliade, Scruton writes that the difference between icons and brands is in the “sacredness” of the object.  A bit from the essay below.  — MOD (x-posted MOJ)

Things become sacred when sacrifices on behalf of the community have been distilled in them, as the sacrifices of generations of soldiers, sailors and airmen are distilled in the American flag. And sacred things are invitations to sacrifice, as is the flag in time of war. Sacred things create bridges across generations: they tell us that the dead and the unborn are present among us, and that their “real presence” lives in each of us, and each of us in it. The decline of religion has deprived us of sacred things. But it has not deprived us of the need for them. Nor has it deprived us of the acute sense of desecration we feel, when facetious images intrude at the places once occupied by these visitors from the transcendental.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

John Finnis: Books and Conferences

John Finnis’s Natural Law and Natural Rights is one of the most important books in jurisprudence of the past century — and an erudite and magisterial interpretation of the tradition of natural law.  On a personal note, it was also one of the books that most influenced my decision to want to teach law; I thought, a life spent trying to create a monument as lasting as  this book is a life well lived.

A five-volume collection of Professor Finnis’s shorter work has now been published, The Collected Essays of John Finnis (OUP 2011), which provides a comprehensive picture of the man’s views in legal, political, and moral philosophy (each book can be purchased singly).  For readers here, the last volume, Religion and Public Reasons, looks especially worthwhile (though all of them look terrific), as it engages masterfully with the issue of the role of religion in political decisionmaking.

And there are two excellent conferences this fall which will discuss and celebrate Professor Finnis’s work: first, at Notre Dame Law School on September 9; second, at Villanova Law School on September 30.

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Polkinghorne, “Science and Religion in Quest of Truth”

In America, one of the recurring controversies over the place of religion in public life has to do with the teaching of evolution in public schools. The extremes are defined by those people who reject any explanation for life other than a materialistic, “scientific” one and those who reject any explanation other than a literal interpretation of Genesis. But those are not the only possible positions. One could accept evolution as a  fact demonstrated by the fossil evidence, but still believe in a divine Creator who, somehow, in ways humans do not understand, guides the process. This position would not be “unscientific,” because science, understood as empirically-verifiable knowledge, does not deal in metaphysics.

Sir John Polkinghorne, a theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest, and winner of the 2002 Templeton Prize, addresses evolution and other issues in his new book, Science and Religion in Quest of Truth (Yale University Press 2011). A description follows.  — MLM

 John Polkinghorne, an international figure known both for his contributions to the field of theoretical elementary particle physics and for his work as a theologian, has over the years filled a bookshelf with writings devoted to specific topics in science and religion. In this new book, he undertakes for the first time a survey of all the major issues at the intersection of science and religion, concentrating on what he considers the essential insights for each. Clearly and without assuming prior knowledge, he addresses causality, cosmology, evolution, consciousness, natural theology, divine providence, revelation, and scripture. Each chapter also provides references to his other books in which more detailed treatments of specific issues can be found.

For those who are new to what Polkinghorne calls “one of the most significant interdisciplinary interactions of our time,” this volume serves as an excellent introduction. For readers already familiar with John Polkinghorne’s books, this latest is a welcome reminder of the breadth of his thought and the subtlety of his approach in the quest for truthful understanding.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Unity, Fragmentation, and Conflicting Social Visions

David Brooks has a column today about the problem of American decline and the need both for government and private intervention to improve the situation.  It’s a generally unremarkable column but this paragraph toward the end caught my eye:

Finally, there is the problem of the social fabric. Segmented societies do not thrive, nor do ones, like ours, with diminishing social trust. Nanny-state government may have helped undermine personal responsibility and the social fabric, but that doesn’t mean the older habits and arrangements will magically regrow simply by reducing government’s role. For example, there has been a tragic rise in single parenthood, across all ethnic groups, but family structures won’t spontaneously regenerate without some serious activism, from both religious and community groups and government agencies.

The call for government and religious/community groups to engage in “serious activism” to regenerate the “social fabric” of the family left me with this question.  If we are interested in this kind of re-generation in order to solve what Brooks sees as the problem of “segmented societies,” don’t we also have to have a fairly firm idea of what we mean by the family?  If there is disagreement — perhaps even deep and irreconcilable conflict — among government agencies, religious, community, and other groups about what a socially healthful family structure looks like, why should Brooks predict that activism from all of these quarters to re-generate the family as a social structure would serve to alleviate the problem of the “segmentation,” and possible fragmentation, of America?  Wouldn’t exactly the opposite be true — that as groups with increasingly different ideas about the healthy family become more active in expounding their respective views, social and cultural segmentation would increase?   — MOD [X-posted, MOJ]

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Classic Revisited: Greenawalt’s “Private Consciences and Public Reasons”

Today’s Classic Revisited is Kent Greenawalt’s Private Consciences and Public Reasons (OUP 1995), a study of the circumstances in which it is appropriate for citizens, legislators, and judges to employ religious reasons to make judgments about political matters.  My old teacher, known for the carefulness of his analysis and for his fine and thoughtful distinctions between various issues, laces this discussion with lively thought experiments about the sort of political society we would want to live in if given the choice among a number of church-state arrangements.  And as is also common with Kent, sprinkled into the text every so often are personal stories or reflections that have shaped his thinking on these matters.  Finally, and in keeping with the book’s emphasis on the “accessibility” of reasons, Kent writes in a straightforward and easily accessible style.  You could not do better for an introduction to his intermediate, nuanced, middle-road, and deeply sophisticated views on these important questions.  The publisher’s description follows.  — MOD

Within democratic societies, a deep division exists over the nature of community and the grounds for political life. Should the political order be neutral between competing conceptions of the good life or should it be based on some such conception? This book addresses one crucial set of problems raised by this division: What bases should officials and citizens employ in reaching political decisions and justifying their positions? Should they feel free to rely on whatever grounds seem otherwise persuasive to them, like religious convictions, or should they restrict themselves to “public reasons,” reasons that are shared within the society or arise from the premises of liberal democracy? Kent Greenawalt argues that fundamental premises of liberal democracy alone do not provides answers to these questions, that much depends on historical and cultural contexts. After examining past and current practices and attitudes in the United States, he offers concrete suggestions for appropriate principles relevant to American society today. This incisive and timely analysis by one of our leading legal philosophers should attract a wide and diverse readership of scholars, practitioners, and concerned citizens.
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Parry on Oklahoma’s Save Our State Amendment

John T. Parry (Lewis & Clark Law School) has posted Oklahoma’s Save Our State Amendment: Two Issues for the Appeal. The abstract follows. –JKH

          This short essay discusses two issues relating to the pending appeal in the litigation over Oklahoma’s Save Our State Amendment.

        First, the district court enjoined certification of the election results, with the result that none of the amendment can go into effect, not even the portions that have nothing to do with “Sharia Law” (which is the focus of the litigation). This essay suggests that the 10th circuit must consider whether the portions of the amendment that are unconstitutional can be severed from the rest (an issue that is not raised in any of the briefs), and I argue that the court should certify this issue to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Second, the district court made a finding of fact that “Sharia Law” — which the amendment equates with “Islamic Law” — is not really law. This finding is not necessary to support the district court’s religion clauses ruling. It is also (1) incorrect and (2) ultimately supportive of the arguments made by supporters of the amendment. I suggest that the 10th circuit reject this finding.

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California Senate Committee Approves Bill Blocking Future Efforts to Ban Circumcision

The Washington Post reports that a California Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously has approved a bill that would prevent local jurisdictions from banning circumcision.  The committee action was in response to San Francisco’s effort to ban circumcision without exception for religious practice or parental choice. (For more on the proposed ban in San Francisco, please see my earlier comment).  The bill, expected to go before the Senate soon, proposes that circumcision, as a medical procedure, is a statewide concern that may not be regulated at the local level.  If approved by the Senate, the bill would leave the circumcision decision up to the parents. The bill would also eliminate any possibility that the district court’s decision to remove the ban from San Francisco’s November ballot might be overturned on appeal. –YAH

Posted on by Mark Movsesian

Turkey to Return Some Seized Properties to Religious Minorities

From Reuters’s valuable FaithWorld blog, a story about Turkey’s announcement Sunday that it will restore or pay compensation for real property it seized from minority religious groups in 1936.  In that year, Turkey required minority religious foundations to register their properties; the government seized several of these properties, including schools and hospitals, claiming that they were not being used.  Since 1974, a government decree has prevented minority foundations from registering new real property.

The European Court of Human Rights has condemned the seizure of these properties as illegal, and the European Union has been pressuring Turkey to return them.  Prior attempts to return the properties ran into nationalist Read more

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Laycock’s “Religious Liberty: The Free Exercise Clause”

Doug Laycock (Virginia) is one of the most important scholars of religious liberty writing today.  My own view is that his treatment of the Free Exercise Clause, and especially his idea of “substantive neutrality,” is among the most penetrating, original, and persuasive ever conceived.  It’s therefore a pleasure for me to announce the publication of the second volume of Doug’s four-volume tour-de-force on the subject, Religious Liberty, Volume Two: The Free Exercise Clause (Eerdmans 2011).  The first volume in the series is also excellent and may be found at the publisher’s site.  The publisher’s description of the book follows.  — MOD

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, and the rights of non-mainstream religions. Dealing with religious schools and colleges, sexual abuse cases, the rights of Hare Krishnas and Scientologists, the landmark decision Employment Division v. Smith, and more, this will be a valuable reference for churches, schools, and other religious organizations as they exercise their constitutionally protected freedom.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

“Islam, Law, and Identity” (Diamantides & Gearey eds.)

This collection of essays, Islam, Law, and Identity (Routledge 2011), edited by Marinos Diamantides (Birkbeck) and Adam  Gearey (Birkbeck), looks like an excellent pathway into many fascinating and pressing issues.  The publisher’s description follows.  — MOD

The essays brought together in Islam, Law and Identity are the product of a series of interdisciplinary workshops that brought together scholars from a plethora of countries. Funded by the British Academy the workshops convened over a period of two years in London, Cairo and Izmir. The workshops and the ensuing papers focus on recent debates about the nature of sacred and secular law and most engage case studies from specific countries including Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, Pakistan and the UK. Islam, Law and Identity also addresses broader and over-arching concerns about relationships between religion, human rights, law and modernity. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches, the collection presents law as central to the complex ways in which different Muslim communities and institutions create and re-create their identities around inherently ambiguous symbols of faith. From their different perspectives, the essays argue that there is no essential conflict between secular law and Shari`a but various different articulations of the sacred and the secular. Islam, Law and Identity explores a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the tensions that animate such terms as Shari`a law, modernity and secularization.