The Internal Law Of Religions

Comparative law of religions has developed in recent years as a new discipline at the intersection of legal and religious science, of theology and anthropology. This book presents a systematic theoretical basis for this new discipline. While law is mostly associated with the state, many religions also have their own internal law. These internal legal norms are aimed at a particular form of behaviour on the part of believers. They therefore play a particular role in conflicts arising today between certain religious forms of behaviour. The comparison of the internal law of religions serves to establish and explain the commonalities and differences between various religious legal traditions. The religions examined here include: the law of Christian denominations, Jewish law, Islamic law, Hindu law, Buddhist law, and other religious legal systems. The work assesses six current approaches to the comparative law of religions, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses, leading to the development of a new approach. The book discusses the role of religious law in state law and looks to likely future developments. The work will be essential for those interested in the administration of justice and politics, for those professions where intercultural competence is required, and for interreligious dialogue.

This book is devoted to the study of the interplay between religious rules and State law. It explores how State recognition of religious rules can affect the degree of legal diversity that is available to citizens and why such recognition sometime results in more individual and collective freedom and sometime in a threat to equality of citizens before the law. The first part of the book contains a few contributions that place this discussion within the wider debate on legal pluralism. While State law and religious rules are two normative systems among many others, the specific characteristics of the latter are at the heart of tensions that emerge with increasing frequency in many countries. The second part is devoted to the analysis of about twenty national cases that provide an overview of the different tools and strategies that are employed to manage the relationship between State law and religious rules all over the world.

"Freedom of Religious or Belief: An International Law Commentary is the first commentary to look comprehensively at the international provisions for the protection of freedom of religion or belief, considering how they are interpreted by various United Nations Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies." -- Back cover.

"Argues that the fundamental reason for church-state conflict is our aversion to questions of religious truth. By trying to avoid the question of religious truth, law and religion has ultimately reached a state of incoherence. He asserts that the answer to this dilemma is to take the agnostic turn: to take an empathetic and imaginative approach to questions of religious truth, one that actually confronts rather than avoids these questions, but without reaching a final judgment about what that truth is"--Jacket.

Permutations of Order makes an innovative and important contribution to current discussions about the relationship between religion and law, bringing together theoretically informed case studies from different parts of the world, relating to various types of politico-legal settings and religions. This volume also deals with contemporary legal/religious transfigurations that involve "permutations," meaning that elements of "legal" and "religious" acts of ordering are at times repositioned within each realm and from one realm to the other. These permutations of order in part result from the fact that, in ethnographic settings like those examined here, "legal" and "religious" realms are relational to-and in certain cases even constitutive of-each other and they result in categoric transpositions and new social positionalities through which, among other things, "the legal" and "the religious" are blended. Permutations of Order is a work that transcends convention, identifies new and theoretically overarching themes and will be of strong interest to researchers and policy-makers seeking a comparative focus on the intersections and disjunctions of religion and law.

And academics in religious studies. Students studying law and religion courses. Leaders and engaged members of churches and religious organizations.

Examines the interdisciplinary development of law and religion, with a particular focus on Professor Norman Doe's pioneering role.

What can lawyers and sociologists learn from each other about religion in the twenty-first century?