Religious Liberty and Freedom of Conscience

This research team is devoted to the meaning of religious liberty and freedom of conscience in a modern society marked by religious and moral pluralism, from a philosophical and legal perspective. Some questions they explore include:

(1)  How can we understand the phenomenon of religion in a society in which traditional religious beliefs and practices are vociferously contested?

(2) Must we define religion very broadly, to include any subjectively important belief system, or must the meaning of religion, for purposes of public policy and law, remain tied in some way to traditional religious belief systems?

(3) To what extent ought we to accommodate conscience claims when they come into conflict with public policy goals, laws, or basic constitutional imperatives?

(4) Is there a stable way to accommodate freedom of conscience without threatening the stability of political regimes?

(5)  How has been built the value and meaning of religious toleration?

In order to address these issues, two research subprojects have been established as follows:

• Narratives in conflict: Religious freedom and the relationship between Church and State in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

• Religious tolerance and the historical myths of modernity