Allen Hertzke on Religious Liberty

tonygill — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:37 +0000

One of the recurring themes of the Research on Religion podcast series is religious liberty — including the causes for, consequences of, and threats to such freedom. Prof. Allen Hertzke — Presidential Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma — joins us to give his overview of this topic based on his research conducted both in the United States and globally. Prof. Hertzke recounts how his interest in religion and politics developed, and how he became increasingly involved in studying religious freedom on a global scale. We talk about what impact academic scholarship might have on promoting religious freedom as well as offer some speculations as to why intellectual and policy elites have often been dismissive, or outright hostile, to this basic civil liberty. We then dissect the importance of religious freedom examining it on the theoretical dimensions of equal worth, dignity, reason and community. We then move on to some of the more empirical examples of how religious freedom has promoted positive developments in the world, and how and why we’ve seen some backtracking on its spread over the past decade. Recorded: November 3, 2011.

Research On Religion » Cardinal Newman

Allen Hertzke on Religious Liberty