Last month, Vandeplas Publishing released “Current Conflicts in Law and Religion” by Vaughn E. James (Texas Tech University School of Law). The publisher’s description follows:

The core of Current Conflicts in Law and Religion takes the reader through eleven hot-topic issues in law and religion in twenty-first century society:
• The role of religious voices in the political debate;
• Religious voices in the abortion rights debate;
• The legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States;
• The ordination of LGBT clergy;
• Prayer and religious exercises in the public schools;
• The place of the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance;
• Evolution versus Creationism;
• The place of Intelligent Design in the public school curriculum;
• The patient’s right to refuse medical treatment based on religious belief;
• The Affordable Care Act, RFRA and the Free Exercise Clause; and
• International issues in law and religion.

Professor James has presented in this one book a review of at least eleven hot-topics in law and religion in contemporary society. Yet, the cases the book covers span a vast expanse of time. They are as old as Reynolds v. United States (1879), and as new as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (2014).

Two things set this book apart from others that discuss these two clauses of the Constitution. First, the book devotes a lengthy first chapter to discussing the basic tenets of some world religions. Some of these religions are well-known and often talked about; their tenets are well-known, even to non-adherents. Others are not-so-well-known, are even obscure; their tenets are hardly known or talked about.  Second, the book begins each chapter with a true story (with names and places changed or otherwise disguised) that depicts one or more of the current conflicts in law and religion.