Legal Commentary

Of the promoting of books, Ecclesiastes writes in the KVJ:DE (King James Version: Director's Edition), there is no end.  I am told that The Agnostic Age: Law, Religion, and the Constitution does not officially come out for a few weeks yet.  (No reason not to pre-order it: it makes a splendid Valentine's Day gift!).  In the meantime, however, I would like to offer a link to the introductory chapter of my book, which Oxford University Press has graciously allowed me to post on SSRN.  It gives a fairly good flavor of the argument, the approach, and the style of the rest of the book.  You are welcome to it, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  (And, of course, that you buy the book.  Aside from my interest in sparking dialogue and productive, neighborly conversation, baby needs a new pair of college funds.)

For those who are interested in these issues, let me flag two events tomorrow.  First, those attending the AALS conference may wish to attend the Law & Religion Section program, "Law and Religion in a (Post-) Secular Age."  The speakers will be Charlton Copeland, Emily Hartigan, Andy Koppelman, and Ayelet Shachar.  It promises to be an excellent program.  The bad news is that it will be on Saturday morning at 8:30 am (in the Hotel Nikko, Monterey I).  The good news is that by Saturday morning you may actually be bored of schmoozing and hanging around in the lobby, so why not actually attend a great discussion?

Second, Saturday is also the 2011 Conference on Christian Legal Thought, sponsored by Lumen Christi and the Law Professors' Christian Fellowship, at the Hotel Monaco San Francisco.  This year's conference is organized around new books on law and religion (and, obviously, law and Christian thought), and the authors of a number of terrific recent books will be speaking--as will I.  There is a registration fee, but anyone interested in questions of law and religion will find it worth his or her while.  I hope to see some of you tomorrow at one or both events.