Legal Commentary

Here is my First Things review of David Novak's recent book, In Defense of Religious Liberty.  A bit:

[T]o mount a serious defense of religious liberty, one must understand what that liberty is and why it is worth protecting. But reaching such an understanding has proved, for more than a few contemporary scholars, harder than it sounds. One senses in current academic conversations a desire, perhaps just a vestigial one, to protect religious liberty in and through law, but also a reluctance or inability to explain why we should. One of Novak?s important and timely tasks is to do just that. . . .