N.B.: At this time, First Things will be introducing a new section of our website entitled “Recent Events”, in which we recap various signature events sponsored by the magazine. This section will also feature high-quality photography of the events, in the hope that readers who cannot make it to these lectures may keep abreast of some of the happenings at First Things.



On Tuesday, September 6, First Things was honored to host Dr. J. H. H. Weiler, the 2010 Erasmus Lecturer and a professor of law at New York University, for a lecture entitled “Freedom from Religion?” Dr. Weiler tackled a familiar question—to what extent religion can and should intersect with the public realm—from a fresh angle by examining European models of jurisprudence.

Weiler first challenged the audience to understand that Europe’s thinking on church-state issues differs rather significantly from the American model. In Europe, rights are not seen in terms of individuals asserting their autonomy against an ever-scheming central authority; rather, groups (both the church, the state, and society-at-large) are seen as having rights which may compete but which need to be balanced against each other. Additionally, he said, the image of a “naked public square” is not fully accurate: what is really meant by this phrase, on the part of those who advocate for this nakedness as a benefit, is that any ideology or agenda is welcome except for that which springs from religion. With this challenge in mind, he said, we must also appreciate that the freedom of religion entails a certain freedom from religion. For assent that must be coerced cannot be genuine.

As a self-described “child of the French Revolution,” Weiler sought to defend a balanced approach to the intersection of religion and public life, in which both belief and unbelief are welcomed (and the regnant ideology possibly determined by local community sentiment) so long as neither side attempts to destroy this very compromise itself. As proof of his convictions, it is worth mentioning that Weiler (who is, as he noted with some irony, Jewish) successfully argued for the preservation of crucifixes on Italian classroom walls in the European Court of Human Rights.

Though the lecture ended after a question-and-answer period, many guests lingered for over an hour in order to continue the discussion and personally engage Weiler. Despite dreary weather outside, the office was filled with a crowd of around fifty guests from the academic, business, and publishing worlds.