The Future of Religious Liberty
Daniel Mark | June 25 - 29
Religious freedom is a highly contentious topic both in the United States and around the world. At home, the fight over religious freedom centers mostly on the emanations of the sexual revolution, including the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples, the normalization of so-called transgenderism, and the Obamacare contraception and abortifacient mandate. Abroad, believers (and sometimes unbelievers) face persecution in the form of imprisonment, torture, and execution, not to mention vigilantism, simply for exercising what Americans would see as the basic rights of religious freedom. Historically the United States has been a leader in the protection of domestic religious freedom and today the United States is a leader in the promotion of international religious freedom.
The advancement of religious freedom raises important policy questions and depends upon answers to deep philosophical questions. The First Amendment, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Second Vatican Council’s Dignitatis Humanae all promote religious freedom in different ways and in different contexts. This course will explore the nature and scope of religious freedom and a variety of public policy questions concerning the limits of the right in principle and in practice.
What does the right to religious freedom include?
What are the limits to religious freedom? When can government restrict religious freedom? When should it?
Does religious freedom protect the right to be an atheist? Should nonreligious conscientious belief be protected like religious belief?
What are the main challenges to religious freedom in the United States today?
Why is religious freedom unprotected in so many places around the world? What, if anything, can the United States do about it?
Meet the Instructor
Daniel Mark
Villanova University
Daniel Mark is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, where he teaches political theory, philosophy of law, American government, and politics and religion. He also serves on the nine-member, bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, to which he was appointed by Speaker John Boehner. Dr. Mark is also an assistant editor of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. He holds a BA, MA, and PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. There, he was affiliated with the Witherspoon Institute, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, the Program in Law and Public Affairs, and the Penn-Princeton Bioethics Forum. Before graduate school, he spent four years as a high school teacher. He also attended Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush) in Israel.