Mark Movsesian

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”508”] Photo from the New York Daily News [/caption] . . . here in New York City, and reader John McGinnis points me to an interesting  New York Times  column on the election’s likely effect on some . . . . Continue Reading »

Religion without God  is the late Ronald Dworkin’s last work, published posthumously in September. It’s a short book; a publisher’s note explains that Dworkin planned to expand the work greatly before he fell ill. Still, the book is important. Not that it says anything . . . . Continue Reading »

A couple of weeks ago, I  posted  about the FBI’s arrest of two rabbis who allegedly orchestrated the kidnapping and torture of dozens of men in New Jersey. The rabbis allegedly did this in order to force the men to consent to their wives’ requests for divorce under Jewish law. . . . . Continue Reading »

Religion News Service has  an interesting interview  with Northwestern’s Elizabeth Shakman Hurd on the promotion of religious freedom in international human rights law. A number of states and regional organizations–including Canada, the EU, and the US–now have special . . . . Continue Reading »

Often, in my class on law and religion at St. John’s, we address difficult questions about where to draw the line on religious autonomy. How far should the state go in accommodating religious practices that conflict with state rules? Or, put in reverse, how much freedom from state control can . . . . Continue Reading »

The Washington Post has a story this week about vandalism at a Protestant cemetery in Jerusalem. The vandals toppled stone crosses from graves and smashed them to pieces. The incident is the latest in a string of recent attacks on Christian sites in Israel: The attack joins a list of high-profile . . . . Continue Reading »

You know that interview Pope Francis gave to Eugenio Scalfari of the Italian newspaper,  La Repubblica ? The one in which the pope made some puzzling comments about conscience and proselytism? The one that so many people,  including me , have been poring over for insights into the . . . . Continue Reading »

Well, I said you couldn’t tell much from one interview. Last week, I  posted  about Pope Francis’s much discussed interview in an Italian Jesuit journal. I observed that the Pope seemed to be a mystic trying to place the Catholic Church outside politics–either progressive . . . . Continue Reading »

Here’s something that makes me wish I had a research leave coming up. The Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey, has announced a year-long project on law and religious freedom, which it will host in cooperation with Princeton University’s program in law and public . . . . Continue Reading »

The Pew Religion and Public Life Project released its most recent survey yesterday, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans.” It turns out that Jews, who make up a little less than two percent of the population, mirror larger trends in American religious life. For example: The Rise of the Nones: . . . . Continue Reading »