About the Book
Law and religion, as a subdiscipline of law, has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, the complex relationship between law and religion cannot be fully understood with reference to legal research alone. This Research Handbook includes provocative chapters from experts on a range of concepts, perspectives and theories, drawing on a variety of disciplines, which can be used to further law and religion scholarship.
Featuring chapters written by authors from a diverse range of backgrounds, the Handbook focuses on five main perspectives on law and religion: historical, philosophical, sociological, theological and comparative. Each chapter provides a new way of looking at law and religion which can complement and enhance a doctrinal legal understanding of the topic. Crucially, this Handbook also highlights the importance of recognising doctrinal legal study as an approach in itself, which will shape research questions and outputs accordingly.
Providing an engaging and thoughtful introduction to the range of interdisciplinary approaches that can be taken to law and religion, this Handbook will be of interest to scholars in law and religion, theologians, sociologists, legal historians and political scientists. It will provide a rich foundation for future interdisciplinary research in this important area of study.
Contributors include: L.G. Beaman, L. Bell, P. Billingham, C.G. Brown, J. Burnside, J. Chaplin, B. Clark, D. Dabby, N. Doe, D. Ezzy, M.A. Failinger, P. Fitzpatrick, D.J. Hill, B.C. Kane, J. Machielson, M. McIvor, T. Modood, P. Monti, A. Nazir, J. Neoh, L. Öztig, D. Perfect, S. Perfect, C. Roberts, R. Sandberg, S. Thompson, M. Travers, C. Ungureanu, D. Whistler, J. Yorke
Table of Contents:
Contents:
Preface
Introduction
1. Snakepits & Sandpits
Russell Sandberg
Part I: Historical Approaches
2. Ecclesiastical Court Records for Social and Cultural History
Bronach C Kane
3. Trial by Ordeal: An Interdisciplinary Approach Yields Fresh Insights
Lindsey Bell
4. ‘Moved and Seduced by the Instigation of the Devil’: Witchcraft and the Law, 1450-1700
Jan Machielson
5. Secularisation and Law in Modern Societies
Callum G Brown
Part II: Philosophical Approaches
6. Philosophy, Law, and Religion
Daniel Whistler and Daniel J Hill
7. Law, Religion, and Public Reason
Paul Billingham and Jonathan Chaplin
8. Multicultural Political Theory
Simon Thompson and Tariq Modood
9. Charles Taylor on Recognition, Inclusive Secularism, and Religion
Camil Ungureanu and Paolo Monti
10. ‘Gods Would be Needed…’: Derrida on Law and Religion
Peter Fitzpatrick
Part III: Sociological Approaches
11. Interpretive Issues in Researching Law and Religion
Max Travers and Doug Ezzy
12. The Lure of Luhmann: A Systems Theory of Law and Religion
Russell Sandberg
13. Social Anthropology
Méadhbh McIvor
14.Religion or Belief, Equality and Human Rights Law and the Media
David Perfect and Simon Perfect
Part IV: Theological Approaches
15. Biblical Law
Jonathan Burnside
16. Political Theology and Legal Theory
Joshua Neoh
17. Feminism Meets Law and Religion: Commonalities and Critiques
Marie A Failinger
Part V: Comparative Approaches
18. A Comparative Method for the Study of Law and Religion: Is this a Defensible Methodology?
Brigitte Clark
19. Monotheism and the Death Penalty: Towards a Homogenous Exegesis for Abolition
Jon Yorke and Amna Nazir
20. The Turkish Constitutional Court Rulings on the Headscarf: The Construction of Villains and Victims
Laçin İdil Öztığ
21. Diversity in Death: A Case Study of a Muslim Cemetery Project in Quebec
Dia Dabby and Lori G Beaman
Index
About the Author :
Edited by Russell Sandberg, Norman Doe, Bronach Kane and Caroline Roberts, Cardiff University, UK
Review :
'In the United Kingdom the study of law and religion is now an established sub-discipline with academic legal studies, itself an ever-expanding and ever-more adventurous part of the university. In this book Professor Sandberg and his colleagues from Cardiff University, an acknowledged centre for the study of law and religion, have brought together scholarship from a range of authors, mainly based in or from the United Kingdom, which attests to the vitality and breadth of work being done in the area.'
--Anthony Bradney, Keele University, UK
