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Rethinking Law and Religion
This incisive book delineates the development of Law and Religion as a sub-discipline, critically reflecting on the author’s own role in constructing the field. It develops a subversive social systems theory in order to take both law and religion seriously and to challenge them equally.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
This incisive book delineates the development of Law and Religion as a sub-discipline, critically reflecting on the author’s own role in constructing the field. It develops a subversive social systems theory in order to take both law and religion seriously and to challenge them equally.
Russell Sandberg crafts a new agenda for academic scrutiny of the interaction between religion and the law. Sandberg criticises scholarship to date for focusing on the legal regulation of religion, which reduces the field to an academic sub-discipline in Law Schools. Instead, Sandberg argues for a re-conceptualisation of Law and Religion as an interdisciplinary interaction, comparing it to fields such as legal history and legal geography. He contends that Law and Religion should take on a critical perspective, interrogating the content, nature and purpose of law, and drawing from literature on law and race and law and gender.
Provocative, personal and sometimes surprising, Rethinking Law and Religion is an illuminating read for students and scholars of law and society, legal theory, and sociology of law and philosophy.
Russell Sandberg crafts a new agenda for academic scrutiny of the interaction between religion and the law. Sandberg criticises scholarship to date for focusing on the legal regulation of religion, which reduces the field to an academic sub-discipline in Law Schools. Instead, Sandberg argues for a re-conceptualisation of Law and Religion as an interdisciplinary interaction, comparing it to fields such as legal history and legal geography. He contends that Law and Religion should take on a critical perspective, interrogating the content, nature and purpose of law, and drawing from literature on law and race and law and gender.
Provocative, personal and sometimes surprising, Rethinking Law and Religion is an illuminating read for students and scholars of law and society, legal theory, and sociology of law and philosophy.
Critical Acclaim
‘Should law and religion be a clearly defined subdiscipline of legal academia? Or part of a broader approach spanning wider legal scholarship? This is a question that few outside academic legal departments are likely to have considered. But for Russell Sandberg, Professor of Law at Cardiff University, it is a key philosophical question. His recent book Rethinking Law and Religion reflects on his career and how his thinking on the role of the subdiscipline has evolved.’
– Helen Nicholls, National Secular Society
‘Understanding the intellectual history of a field is often neglected. Fortunately, Professor Sandberg has performed a valuable service in diagnosing where Law and Religion currently languishes. By grasping its opportunities, Sandberg hopes, as do I, that it may yet grow into a permanent and mature sub-discipline in the panoply of legal (and religious) subjects.’
–Rex Ahdar, University of Otago, New Zealand
‘A new look from inside the law and religion work field: when it took shape, how it developed, who made the key choices and why now the whole building risks to collapse. A story of missed opportunities and an enlightening reflection on how to rethink this area of study and teaching.’
– Silvio Ferrari, University of Milan, Italy
‘For upwards of a decade, Professor Sandberg has been the grit in the oyster of Law and Religion scholarship, challenging established norms and creating fresh dynamics. Creative, witty and erudite, this volume is more than a rethink – it is a wholesale disrupter.’
– Mark Hill KC, University of Notre Dame, UK
‘A wide ranging, but explicitly personal, account of the intellectual history of the study of Law and Religion which everyone interested in law and religion should read’
– Peter Edge, Oxford Brookes University, UK
– Helen Nicholls, National Secular Society
‘Understanding the intellectual history of a field is often neglected. Fortunately, Professor Sandberg has performed a valuable service in diagnosing where Law and Religion currently languishes. By grasping its opportunities, Sandberg hopes, as do I, that it may yet grow into a permanent and mature sub-discipline in the panoply of legal (and religious) subjects.’
–Rex Ahdar, University of Otago, New Zealand
‘A new look from inside the law and religion work field: when it took shape, how it developed, who made the key choices and why now the whole building risks to collapse. A story of missed opportunities and an enlightening reflection on how to rethink this area of study and teaching.’
– Silvio Ferrari, University of Milan, Italy
‘For upwards of a decade, Professor Sandberg has been the grit in the oyster of Law and Religion scholarship, challenging established norms and creating fresh dynamics. Creative, witty and erudite, this volume is more than a rethink – it is a wholesale disrupter.’
– Mark Hill KC, University of Notre Dame, UK
‘A wide ranging, but explicitly personal, account of the intellectual history of the study of Law and Religion which everyone interested in law and religion should read’
– Peter Edge, Oxford Brookes University, UK
Contents
Contents:
Preface
1 Navel battles
2 Getting personal
PART I REPENTANCE
3 Creation myths
4 A false dawn
5 A paper tiger
6 The American dream
7 My confession
Excursus I
PART II REAPPRAISAL
8 The first comparator: law and inequalities
9 Law and gender
10 Law and race
11 The second comparator: law and humanities
12 Law and history
13 Law and geography
Excursus 2
PART III REGENERATION
14 Systems reboot
15 The lure of Luhmann
16 The deparadoxification strategies of religion law
17 Religious law as a social system
18 Systems upgrade
19 Rewriting history
Excursus 3
PART IV CONCLUSION
20 So what
Preface
1 Navel battles
2 Getting personal
PART I REPENTANCE
3 Creation myths
4 A false dawn
5 A paper tiger
6 The American dream
7 My confession
Excursus I
PART II REAPPRAISAL
8 The first comparator: law and inequalities
9 Law and gender
10 Law and race
11 The second comparator: law and humanities
12 Law and history
13 Law and geography
Excursus 2
PART III REGENERATION
14 Systems reboot
15 The lure of Luhmann
16 The deparadoxification strategies of religion law
17 Religious law as a social system
18 Systems upgrade
19 Rewriting history
Excursus 3
PART IV CONCLUSION
20 So what
