LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

Here’s a pretty neat new book at the crossroads of religion and copyright law. Just as the corporate form can foster certain forms of cultural and civic association, so can the laws governing ownership of original artistic and literary work. The book is Copyrighting God: Ownership of the Sacred in American Religion, by Andrew Ventimiglia (CUP).

Copyrighting God provides the first detailed account of how American religious organizations used copyright in sacred texts not simply for economic gain but also for social organization and control. Including chapters on the angelic authorship of The Urantia Book, Mary Baker Eddy’s use of copyright to construct the Christian Science Church, interdenominational disputes in the Worldwide Church of God, and the Church of Scientology’s landmark lawsuits against Internet service providers, this book examines how religious copyright owners mobilized the law in order to organize communities, protect sacred goods, produce new forms of spiritual identity, and even enchant the material world. In doing so, this book demonstrates that these organizations all engaged in complex efforts to harmonize legal arguments and theological rationales in order to care for and protect religious media, thereby coming to a nuanced understanding of secular law as a resource for, and obstacle to, their unique spiritual objectives.

Many of the most interesting controversies concerning religious accommodation in the early American republic concerned the treatment of Quakers. An excellent treatment of some of the issues is Philip Hamburger’s Emory Law Journal piece, “Religious Freedom in Philadelphia.” Here is a new biography of William Penn, a crucial figure in Pennsylvania history and the history of religious freedom in general, who himself converted to Quakerism. The book is William Penn: A Life, by political scientist Andrew R. Murphy (Oxford University Press).

On March 4, 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a charter for a new American colony. Pennsylvania was to be, in its founder’s words, a bold “Holy Experiment” in religious freedom and toleration, a haven for those fleeing persecution in an increasingly intolerant England and across Europe. An activist, political theorist, and the proprietor of his own colony, Penn would become a household name in the New World, despite spending just four years on American soil.

Though Penn is an iconic figure in both American and British history, controversy swirled around him during his lifetime. In his early twenties, Penn became a Quaker–an act of religious as well as political rebellion that put an end to his father’s dream that young William would one day join the English elite. Yet Penn went on to a prominent public career as a Quaker spokesman, political agitator, and royal courtier. At the height of his influence, Penn was one of the best-known Dissenters in England and walked the halls of power as a close ally of King James II. At his lowest point, he found himself jailed on suspicion of treason, and later served time in debtor’s prison.

Despite his importance, William Penn has remained an elusive character–many people know his name, but few know much more than that. Andrew R. Murphy offers the first major biography of Penn in more than forty years, and the first to make full use of Penn’s private papers. The result is a complex portrait of a man whose legacy we are still grappling with today. At a time when religious freedom is hotly debated in the United States and around the world, William Penn’s Holy Experiment serves as both a beacon and a challenge.

Here’s a new book by one of the former members of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships and a frequent writer about and defender of religious diversity, Eboo Patel: Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise (Princeton University Press). This style of advocacy for American religious freedom and diversity was once mainstream, but recently I have seen less of it on both the left and right. It would be interesting to ask the author why that might be. One worth checking out (and congratulations to our friend and Fall 2018 Colloquium in Law and Religion participant, John Inazu, for his contribution to the book).

America is the most religiously devout country in the Western world and the most religiously diverse nation on the planet. In today’s volatile climate of religious conflict, prejudice, and distrust, how do we affirm the principle that the American promise is deeply intertwined with how each of us engages with people of different faiths and beliefs? Eboo Patel, former faith adviser to Barack Obama and named one of America’s best leaders by U.S. News & World Report, provides answers to this timely and consequential question.

In this inspiring and thought-provoking book, Patel draws on his personal experience as a Muslim in America to examine broader questions about the importance of religious diversity in the cultural, political, and economic life of the nation. He explores how religious language has given the United States some of its most enduring symbols and inspired many of its most vital civic institutions—and demonstrates how the genius of the American experiment lies in its empowerment of people of all creeds, ethnicities, and convictions.

Will America’s identity as a Judeo-Christian nation shift as citizens of different backgrounds grow in numbers and influence? In what ways will minority religious communities themselves change as they take root in American soil? In addressing these and other questions, Patel shows how America’s promise is the guarantee of equal rights and dignity for all, and how that promise is the foundation of America’s unrivalled strength as a nation. Incisive commentaries by John Inazu, Robert Jones, and Laurie Patton consider critical issues of American civil religion, faith and law, and the increase in the number of nonreligious Americans.