The Tragedy of Religious Freedom

by Marc O. DeGirolami (Author)

4 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0674072664

ISBN-10: 9780674072664

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When it comes to questions of religion, legal scholars face a predicament. They often expect to resolve dilemmas according to general principles of equality, neutrality, or the separation of church and state. But such abstractions fail to do justice to the untidy welter of values at stake. Offering new views of how to understand and protect religious freedom in a democracy, The Tragedy of Religious Freedom challenges the idea that matters of law and religion should be referred to far-flung theories about the First Amendment. Examining a broad array of contemporary and more established Supreme Court rulings, Marc DeGirolami explains why conflicts implicating religious liberty are so emotionally fraught and deeply contested.

Twenty-first-century realities of pluralism have outrun how scholars think about religious freedom, DeGirolami asserts. Scholars have not been candid enough about the tragic nature of the conflicts over religious liberty―the clash of opposing interests and aspirations they entail, and the limits of human reason to resolve intractable differences. The Tragedy of Religious Freedom seeks to turn our attention from abstracted, absolute values to concrete, historical realities. Social history, characterized by the struggles of lawyers engaged in the details of irreducible conflicts, represents the most promising avenue to negotiate legal conflicts over religion. In this volume, DeGirolami offers an approach to understanding religious liberty that is neither rigidly systematic nor ad hoc, but a middle path grounded in a pluralistic and historically informed perspective.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A sophisticated and thoughtful book, which offers fresh insights on a central question of religious liberty.”―Philip Hamburger, author of Separation of Church and State

“The Tragedy of Religious Freedom is a first-rate contribution to the law-and-religion conversation. This conversation--how to think about, and how to effectively protect in law, religious freedom in a constitutional democracy--is a lively and timely one, and DeGirolami is an impressive participant.”―Richard W. Garnett, Notre Dame Law School

“DeGirolami's is a thoughtful and sophisticated meditation on the protean relationship between law and faith in a society committed to religious freedom. His intellectual and cultural influences are broad and rewarding; his style is rich and accessible; and his critique of both theoretical foundationalism and skepticism is profound and compelling. The Tragedy of Religious Freedom is an important book that will undoubtedly influence and enrich this discussion for years to come.
”―Ian Bartrum, Journal of Church and State

“DeGirolami sharply criticizes the current state of legal theory regarding religious freedom in the U.S. and offers a solution he claims will cure many present ills.”―M. D. Brewer, Choice

“One of the best recent books on constitutional law.”―Adam J. White, Weekly Standard

“DeGirolami’s Tragedy is perhaps the single best exposition of ‘Burkean constitutionalism’ in decades…It is the most nuanced, thoughtful, and effective explanation of ‘Burkean’ jurisprudence in a generation, and it deserves the widest possible audience.”―Adam J. White, Commentary

About the Author

Marc O. DeGirolami is Associate Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law.

Product details

ASIN : 0674072669
Publisher : Harvard University Press (June 10, 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780674072664
ISBN-13 : 978-0674072664
Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
Dimensions : 6.4 x 0.7 x 9.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,613,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,170 in Constitutional Law (Books)
- #4,237 in Legal History (Books)
- #5,191 in General Constitutional Law

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Edward Mechmann

A must-read to understand religious liberty law

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2014

This is an outstanding contribution to understanding the law of religious liberty. Clearly written, extremely well argued, and persuasively illustrated with case examples. It would be tough going for a reader with no prior familiarity with this area of the law, but for any lawyer or law student, it is a must-read.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Peter P. Fuchs

Apropos Classical Sophism, Not Classical Tragedy

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2013

I have followed Mr. De Girolami blog trail for a while, because he is one of the smarmiest reactionary Catholic voices out there, given to petty harangues about about matters as diverse as gay marriage & the "paganism" of Impressionist art. He seems to take his own view very uncritically to heart, and imagine that his knowledge is apt to keep others at bay. But the matters he is messing with are too important, No dummy surely, but his book shows why few people trust University presses anymore as signs of quality. I am sure his parents who are Harvard medical profs are delighted to see their offspring get a book published from Harvard, but the rest of us who must allow for liberty's sake, the toxin of a view that our cherished ideals of liberty are "comic" to this man, are not so happy. The typical strategy of Catholic reactionaries nowadays is to make it sound that they have considered a number of views, and are selecting the best for good reasons. By contrast, one should note that the very essence of ideas of "assent" that governs the minds of such people explicitly since the encyclical of John Paul II "Ex Corde" tell the real story. In fact, a whole raft of real-world positions are off limits from the start for such thinkers as Mr. DeGirolami, though he would pretend otherwise, and that he has come up with a real-world tragic alternative, considering all. In other words, as a Catholic academic, teaching at a Catholic school, his own assertion to the contrary must be prevarication, or at least dissembling. That is not tragedy, it just plain old lying for a cause. In the same way, he would like to assert that his consideration of "values pluralism" is an ample one (for a non-ample values pluralism would sound silly on its face!). So he wants us to believe that his reading of the matter properly involves the work of the great theorist Isaiah Berlin, who in his DeGirlomi's unwittingly funny description in an endnote says that Berlin "hovers" over his descriptions. Sound more like he considers such a incisive thinker as Berlin a sort of vulture circling for carrion comfort. Of course he knows very well with his reactionary Catholic views he should not be citing Berlin at all, so far is that great thinker from his understanding and habits of thought. So recently he tried to say on a blog that the actual thinking of Berlin himself was not the same as a "Berlinian " position. That is carion comfort indeed to those who cherish real religious liberty which DeGirolami nastily withering assertions mock as comic.

But I found it truly remarkable that even with all that, there is a much simpler way to quash the pretensions of this book. For despite saying that his notion of tragedy is beholden to classical sources, he seems not understand the real genesis of his own view in the ancient world. His knowledge seems pretty thin. The arguments he uses to criticize what he identifies as "systematic" pretensions of "comic" religious liberty, are not really ones that are closest to those classical tragic notions. In fact the unique combination of desire to hold onto a moral position that even flouts "egalitarian" fairness and reasoning therefrom, coupled with the incessant desire to dismantle the natural healthy drive towards a common shareable system and resolution, has its genesis in another groups of ancient thinkers. Many tend to forget that the Sophists had as their primary motivation the preservation of what was for them a very conservative morality, and the desire to have it taught, And what we now know as "sophistical" arguments were in fact dismantling operations, and withering almost comic ascriptions of others' arguments & desires for coherence to provide for more fairness. But I guess the Editors at Harvard don't bother themselves much with reading thought of the ancient world anymore. So when DeGirolami credits an ancient (classical) source, it did not occur to them that he might have been cribbing from a different set of sources and strategies.

The whole argument of this book is identical with the strategies of the ancient Sophists, dressed up for new battles. It is amazing that is poses as something else. It is also ridiculous that those ancient sophists are being used to demean the great ideals of this country for DeGirolamis reactionary political purposes. Since Sophism died a long time ago, it has been revived occasionally and effectively to add dash, color and oomph to arguments. That much is true. But rarely has it been revived for such a fatuous purpose. In light of the serious of the issues invoked, as to our very political and legal liberty, it is a dangerous revival of Sophism as well. And shame on Harvard for publishing it. As well for ignorantly allowing it to pose as something else, like great works of tragedy.

10 people found this helpful