December 28, 2018 - LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Here is a retrospective list of some of our papers and activities in 2018, with links where available. A warm word of gratitude to our readers, and best wishes for the new year!

Papers

DeGirolami, On the Uses of Anti-Christian Identity Politics, in “Religious Freedom, LGBT Rights, and the Prospects for Common Ground” (Robin Fretwell Wilson & William Eskridge, eds., 2018).

Movsesian, Markets and Morals: The Limits of Doux Commerce, 9 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. 449 (2018).

DeGirolami, The Sickness Unto Death of the First Amendment (forthcoming Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy).

Movsesian, Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Future of Religious Freedom, 42 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y (forthcoming)

DeGirolami (with Kevin Walsh), Conservatives, Don’t Put Too Much Hope in the Next Justice (New York Times, July).

DeGirolami (with Kevin Walsh), 2018 Supreme Court Roundup: Kennedy’s Last Term (First Things, October).

DeGirolami, The Long Tail of Legal Liberalism (reviewing Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed (2018)) (Liberty Fund Library of Law and Liberty, February)

Activities

The Tradition Project, Part III: “Tradition and the Global Clash of Values,” Rome, Italy, December.

Legal Spirits (podcast series concerning law and religion).

In spring 2018, Movsesian was a fellow in the James Madison Program in Princeton University’s Department of Politics.

Throughout the year, Movsesian blogged regularly at First Things and Law & Liberty.

Movsesian, Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Annual Conference, Panelist, “A House Divided–Polarization in Our Common Life,” November.

Movsesian, Princeton University, Panelist, “Religious Freedom at Home and Abroad,” Madison Program Annual Conference, May.

Movsesian, Princeton University, Commentator, Conference on Law, Religion, and Complicity, University Center for Human Values, April.

Movsesian, Princeton University, Madison Program Workshop Series, The Future of Religious Freedom.

Movsesian, Colloquium on Religion and Liberalism, First Things Magazine (invited participant).

Movsesian, Columbia Law School, Guest Faculty, “Reading Group in the American Constitutional Tradition.

Movsesian, George Mason University Law School, Center for the Study of the Administrative State, The Future of Religious Freedom, March.

DeGirolami, “Higher Purposes of Free Speech,” Conference, “Higher Powers,” Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, November.

DeGirolami, Constitution Day Discussion, The King’s College, New York (with David Tubbs), September.

DeGirolami, “First Amendment Developments in the Supreme Court’s Recent Cases,” Loyola University Maryland, September.

DeGirolami, “The Sickness Unto Death of the First Amendment,” Center for the Study of the Administrative State, George Mason University School of Law, March.

To conclude the Christmas week, here is an interesting collection of essays generally about the work of the influential 20th century natural law philosopher, Jacques Maritain. The book is The Things That Matter: Essays Inspired by the Later Work of Jacques Maritain (CUA Press), edited by Heidi Giebel.

In the final year of his long life, eminent Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain prepared a final book for publication: a collection of previously unpublished writings entitled Approches sans entraves, later translated into English as Untrammeled Approaches. That collection, both in its conversational yet reverent tone and in its weighty topics – faith, love, truth, beauty – gives the reader the sense that she is receiving from a great teacher and friend the most important nuggets of wisdom for the next generation. Throughout the book, Maritain shares with his readers, from his heart as well as his intellect, regarding the things that really matter; that book – and those things – are the primary inspiration for the present volume.

This volume, comprised of original essays by twenty English-speaking Thomists on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Untrammeled Approaches’ first English appearance, explores several of Maritain’s still-untrammeled (or at least less-trammeled) themes. While following his unbeaten paths, the contributing authors find and refine hidden treasures at every turn. They develop some of his more speculative ideas regarding the spiritual world – including the last things, the fate of the fallen angels, and a possible angelic role in evolution. They reflect deeply on a few of Maritain’s recurring themes: for example, the nature of beauty and intuition. They analyze the implications – positive and negative – of Maritain’s philosophy of love, marriage, and sexuality. And they consider and apply his arguments regarding appropriate roles and interactions of Church and state. The volume concludes with big-picture reflections on Maritain, his thought, and his enduring relevance.