Tag: religion
What is a Religious War?
Today’s article comes from an interesting place: a discussion of religious conflict in Israel, published 3 days before the Palestinian attack. Even more surprising, it is not about a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims, but one among Jews. The subject is a statement by an Orthodox member of the Knesset that the current social …
An Adventist Take on Spinoza
I was surprised to find an article in a Seventh-Day Adventist journal praising Baruch Spinoza. Adventists tend toward literal interpretations of scripture — their very name concerns the literal interpretation of the Sabbath — and Spinoza’s view of religion is high metaphorical. In some ways, it is hardly compatible with a traditional understanding of God, …
Secularism and the State
I get an alert email from Google whenever “Peace of Westphalia” pops up on a new site. These generally fall into one of two categories. First, there are those in the “Executive Intelligence Review,” a publication put out by the LaRouche movement. If you aren’t old enough to have lived through the 1980’s, you probably …
The Meaning of Religious Freedom
I have argued on several occasions that the Peace of Westphalia was synonymous with religious freedom long before it took up its modern association with sovereignty. And yet, religious freedom is a contentious subject, even for people who believe in it in principle. The Peace of Westphalia did not grant freedom to all religions, only …