Religion & Law

An update from the shamelessness desk:  On February 4, I'll be giving a lecture at the University of Virginia's St. Anselm Institute called "Positive Secularism:  Understanding the Separation of Church and State."  More here, and here:

Prof. Garnett's public lecture will develop the idea of "positive secularism" as a lens for viewing the customary separation of church and state in the United States. Pope Benedict XVI and others have expressed their admiration for the "American model" of religious freedom and church-state relations in which government respects both the role of religious arguments and commitments in the public square and the important distinction between religious and political authorities. This model is "secular" in the sense that laws and policies are not supplied or implemented directly by religious authority; it is "positive" in that the understanding of human flourishing it is designed to promote protects the freedoms of religious practice, the search for religious truth, and the sanctity of religious conscience. The American experiment in religious liberty and the principle of church-state "separation" should, therefore, be seen and celebrated as part of an attempt to secure religious liberty and authentic human flourishing through constitutional limits on governmental interference and constitutional protection of the profession and practice of faith.