Taking Rites Seriously
Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith

This book is a critical look at how courts, legal scholars, and the academic culture mischaracterize and misunderstand religious beliefs.

Francis J. Beckwith (Author)

9781107112728, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 November 2015

240 pages
23.8 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

'We endorse Beckwith's book because its goal is to encourage this kind of public reasoning about the ethico-religious matters that are hotly debated today across this society and within the field of religious studies.' Peter Ochs and Randi Rashkover, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Taking Rites Seriously is about how religious beliefs and religious believers are assessed by judges and legal scholars and are sometimes mischaracterized and misunderstood by those who are critical of the influence of religion in politics or in the formation of law. Covering three general topics - reason and motive, dignity and personhood, nature and sex - philosopher and legal theorist Francis J. Beckwith carefully addresses several contentious legal and cultural questions over which religious and non-religious citizens often disagree: the rationality of religious belief, religiously motivated legislation, human dignity in bioethics, abortion and embryonic stem cell research, reproductive rights and religious liberty, evolutionary theory, and the nature of marriage. In the process, he responds to some well-known critics of public faith - including Brian Leiter, Steven Pinker, Suzanna Sherry, Ronald Dworkin, John Rawls, and Richard Dawkins - as well as to some religiously conservative critics of secularism, such as the advocates for intelligent design.

1. Introduction: faith seeking understanding
Part I. Reason and Motive: 2. Fides, ratio et juris: how some courts and some legal theorists misrepresent the rational status of religious beliefs
3. Theological exclusionary rule: the judicial misuse of religious motives
Part II. Dignity and Personhood: 4. Dignity never been photographed: bioethics, policy, and Steven Pinker's materialism
5. Personhood, prenatal life, and religious belief
Part III. Nature and Sex: 6. How to be an anti-intelligent design advocate: science, religion, and the problem of intelligent design
7. Same-sex marriage and justificatory liberalism: religious liberty, comprehensive doctrines, and public life
8. Conclusion: taking rites seriously.

Subject Areas: Law & society [LAQ], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Politics & government [JP], Ethical issues & debates [JFM], Religion & politics [HRAM2]