Novak, Weigel, and Galston to discuss Religious Liberty

Readers of First Things will no doubt be interested in an upcoming event featuring longtime contributors and board members David Novak and George Weigel. The good Rabbi will be at Georgetown University on January 21 to discuss with Weigel, Tom Farr, and William Galston his latest book, In Defense of Religious Liberty . From the event’s website :

William James once quipped that “in this age of toleration,” no one “will ever try actively to interfere with our religious faith, provided we enjoy it quietly with our friends and do not make a public nuisance of it.” Unfortunately — at least for the privatizers and the secularists — religion is a very public matter for a simple reason: most religions make definitive moral claims that implicate the common good. So says Rabbi David Novak in his new book about religious liberty, why it is endangered, and why it should be protected. His is not, however, a book about attacks on religiousfreedom in Saudi Arabia or China. It is about liberal democracies such as the United States and Canada, where religious actors andinstitutions are increasingly vulnerable because of their public dissent to emerging laws and norms on issues like same-sex marriage. Novak, a Professor of Jewish Studies and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, will discuss the perils and the remedies – including the need to ground democratic religious liberty once again (as did America’s founders) in divine law.

You can register for the event here .

For First Things ’ own discussion of Novak’s important book, be sure to check out Rick Garnett’s review , which appeared last month.