2024/4/4 Book Chapter Published. “‘Go and Do Likewise’: Law, Christianity, and Good Samaritanism,” in Rafael Domingo Osle and Gary S. Hauk, eds. Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Essays in Honor of John Witte, Jr. (Leiden: Brill, 165-183). In this chapter, I examine the Good Samaritan and related themes through the work of John Witte, drawing further inspiration from the great minds of two friends and teachers that Witte and I were blessed to share: the late Don S. Browning and Jean Bethke Elshtain. These reflections range from the ethics of bystanders to the kindness of strangers and the proper balance of charity and justice in the modern social welfare state. The common denominator is the ongoing challenge raised by the story of the Good Samaritan for law, religion, and ethics.
2020/03/21. Web Symposium Held and Digital Essay Published. This virtual conference and essay series explores global challenges of homelessness, housing policy and housing vulnerability. My presentation and essay focused on the interrelation of housing rights with other citizenship rights—including the right to vote—as an under-appreciated dimension of the “housing rights as human rights” conversation. The symposium presentation was accompanied by the digital essay “Housing Rights, Citizen Rights, and Human Dignity: The Case of Voting While Unhoused,” Canopy Forum/ Center for the Study of Law and Religion, March 20, 2024.
2023/12/08. Book Chapter Published. With Massimiliano Montini. “Christianity, Law, and the Ecological Crisis,” in The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law, eds. John Witte, Jr. and Rafael Domingo Osle (New York: Oxford University Press), 649-663. This chapter examines theological and political approaches to the environment and the current global ecological crisis across the Christian tradition. It acknowledges the human roots of the ecological crisis and argues that its main origin can be found in the dominant technocratic paradigm that has shaped human development in the past two centuries. Humanity will be able to tackle the ecological crisis only by developing a different relationship with nature, based on an individual and collective ecological conversion. This should rely on the paradigm of ecological integrity, which recognizes the existence of a close connection between the well-being of humanity and the health and integrity of ecosystems. It is a paradigm that is also giving rise to new ecological understandings of the law.
2023/12 Tenth ACLARS Volume Published. Edited with Brett G. Scharffs and Simeon O. Ilsesanmi. African Conceptions of Human Dignity (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, 2023). As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approaches its 75th anniversary, contributors join together in this tenth ACLARS volume to propose a framing of human rights in terms of African conceptions of human dignity. Following on the signing of the Punta del Este and Botswana Declarations of Human Dignity for Everyone Everywhere in 2018 and 2023, contributors discuss human dignity as an African and indigenous concept grounded in relationship, community, and an overarching ethic of Ubuntu. Chapters further explore human dignity’s many meanings and relation to other rights in the African context, as well as human dignity’s connection to basic human needs, state obligations, religion and theology, gender and age, and the environment.
2022/12 Ninth ACLARS Volume Published. Edited with Faith Kabata and Fortune Sibanda. Law, Religion, Health and Healing in Africa (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, 2022). The Covid‑19 pandemic was global in its spread and reach, as well as in its medical, social and economic effects. In many respects, the global effort to “flatten the curve” produced a flattening of experience around the world and a striking coincidence of similar experiences in countries the world over. The identity, simultaneity and uniformity of experience were also manifest in common concerns at the intersection of law and religion in many nations around the world, including Africa. The lockdowns and closure of religious worship centres – churches, mosques and religious organisations of all sorts – raised questions of freedom of religion and the related concern for freedom of assembly, along with concerns about the relation of religion to science and public health, religious channels of communication and religious provision of social services. After all, health, communications and social services are all areas in which African religious organisations play key roles. Potential tensions around these issues raised further considerations about the nature of religion-state relations, the status of religious authority and whether religious and state actors would work together or at odds in addressing the Covid‑19 pandemic.
2021/12 Eighth ACLARS Volume Published
Law, Religion and the Family in Africa, edited with Faith Kabata (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, December 2021). Read the introduction. The family is a crucial site for the interaction of law and religion the world over, including Africa. In many African societies, the family is governed by a range of sources of law—including civil, constitutional, customary and religious law. International law and human rights principles have been domesticated into African legal systems, particularly to protect the rights of women and children. Religious rites and rituals govern sexuality, marriage, divorce, child-rearing, inheritance, intergenerational relations and more in Christianity, Islam and indigenous African custom. This book examines the African family with attention to tradition and change, comparative law, the relation of parents and children to the state, indigenous religion and customary law, child marriage and child labour and migration, diaspora and displacement.
2021/11 Canopy Forum Digital Journal Two-Year “COVID, Courts, and More” Essay Retrospective. Contributions to the new digital journal Canopy Forum on law and religion at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, including: “Abortion, Dobbs, and Foreign Law at the U.S. Supreme Court” (November 23, 2021), “Religious Minorities and Religious Freedom at Home–and in Afghanistan” (September 2, 2021), “Mask Mandates and the Uses of the Law” (May 10, 2021), “Of Bans, Sin, and Reconciliation,” (April 15, 2021).”The Chorister’s Tale: Religious Freedom Analogies in the COVID Pandemic” (March 10, 2021), “Religious Tests, Religious Freedom, and ‘Animus’ and ‘Bigotry’ at the Supreme Court” (December 23, 2020), “Religious Freedom and Subsidiarity in the COVID Pandemic” (May 3, 2020), “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights’” (edited essay series, January 2020), “Rawlsian Public Reason and Religious Leadership of Government Officials” (November 26, 2019), and “Precedent in Doubt?: Brown v. Board of Education in Recent Judicial Confirmations,” (October 10, 2019).
2020/10 Martyrdom Article Published. “Persecution and Martyrdom: Global Debates and Christian Responses,” Unio cum Christo/Union with Christ: International Journal of Reformed Theology and Life, 6:2 (October 2020): 165-182. Article builds off an earlier presentation of the paper “Questionable Martyrdom: Contemporary Disputes over Its Nature and Scope,” Presented to the Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Group at the 2015 American Academy of Religion annual meeting.
2020/6/3 Seventh ACLARS Volume Published. Law, Religion and the Environment Africa, edited with Muhammad Haron (Stellenbosch: African Sun Media, June 3, 2020). This volume explores themes of ecotheology, ecofeminism, environmental pollution and degradation, climate change, human and environmental rights, sustainable development, human-animal relations through totem and taboo, sacred sites and spaces, and other environmental topics in ways that add immeasurably to the study of African environmentalisms and the interaction of law and religion. In terms of religion, the capability of humans not only to sin and destroy the earth, but also to repair and redeem it, is very much in evidence across Christianity, Islam and Africa’s many indigenous religious and cultural traditions. In terms of law, the need for effective policies and for states and governments to work with indigenous groups and communities towards environmental solutions is also apparent.
2020/1 Edited Essay Series Published. In January 2020, Canopy Forum, published its first essay series, “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights’” to examine issues and questions arising from the establishment of a Commission on Unalienable Rights at the U.S. State Department.
2019/ 10/1 Canopy Forum Digital Journal Launched. In Fall 2019, the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory launched its new digital journal, Canopy Forum, covering issues at the intersection of law and religion . See my essays “Precedent in Doubt?: Brown v. Board of Education in Recent Judicial Confirmations,” published October 10, 2019, and “Rawlsian Public Reason and Religious Leadership of Government Officials,” published November 26, 2019.
2019/5 Book Chapter Published. “Law, Religion, and Religious Minorities: Reflections on International Human Rights Law and Global Islam,” in Minority Religions under Irish Law (Brill, 2019). Minority Religions under Irish Law focuses the spotlight specifically on the legal protections afforded in Ireland to minority religions, generally, and to the Muslim community, in particular. Although predominantly focused on the Irish context, the book also boasts contributions from leading international academics, considering questions of broader global importance such as how to create an inclusive environment for minority religions and how to regulate religious tribunals best. Reflecting on issues as diverse as the right to education, marriage recognition, Islamic finance and employment equality, Minority Religions under Irish Law provides a comprehensive and fresh look at the legal space occupied by many rapidly growing minority religions in Ireland, with a special focus on the Muslim community.
2018/5/19 Sixth ACLARS Volume Published. Law, Religion and Human Flourishing in Africa (SUN MeDIA Stellenbosch, May 19, 2019). A shared interest of law and religion is the advancement of human flourishing, yet there is no common understanding of what it means for humans to flourish and the means by which to attain a flourishing life. The concept of human flourishing is especially important for Africa, where community and national development compete with forces of conflict and scarce resources. In the broadest sense, the concept of human flourishing focuses our attention on having a comprehensively good or worthwhile life, but various religious and legal traditions suggest different norms for measuring the quality of life and designing the institutional structures that could best facilitate and preserve it.
2018/12/11 Article Published. With Monica Duffy Toft. “Progress on Freedom of Religion or Belief?: An Analysis of European and North American Parliamentary Initiatives,” Review of Faith & International Affairs, 16:4 (December 2018). Threats to and violations of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) have been increasing around the world for the last two decades. This has prompted governments to implement initiatives to promote FoRB and to condemn violations. Drawing on data and findings of the Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion or Belief (CIFoRB), this article presents an analysis of recent legislative, parliamentary, and executive branch initiatives in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Norway to prioritize FoRB, for the lessons they afford on effective policy action. After an overview of these states’ initiatives, this paper concludes with an assessment of their success.
2018/12/11 Article Published. With Monica Duffy Toft. “Freedom of Religion Across the Commonwealth: Hard Cases, Diverse Approaches,” Review of Faith and International Affairs, 16:4 (December 2018). This paper addresses freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) issues that have been emerging in the Asian Commonwealth, including religious minorities, violent extremism, religion and development, rising secularism, and religious equality and around nondiscrimination. Pakistan and India have turned their attention to addressing the situation of minorities. Other nations, Bangladesh, with concerns about rising Islamism and secularism; Sri Lanka, with its legacy of inter-ethnic conflict; and Malaysia, with multiculturalism alongside religious protections, have recently advocated tolerance, respect, unity, harmony, and peace, even as interreligious tensions appear to be rising. This paper examines the state of FoRB in these Commonwealth nations.
2018/5/20 Fifth ACLARS Volume Published.Religion, Law and Security in Africa, edited with T. Jeremy Gunn and Mark Hill (Stellenbosch: SUN MeDIA Stellenbosch, May 20, 2018). Security is a key topic of our time. But how do we understand it? Do law and religion take different views of it? In this fifth volume in the Law and Religion in Africa series, radicalisation, terrorism, blasphemy, hate speech, religious freedom and just war theories rub shoulders with issues of witchcraft, female genital mutilation circumcision, child marriage, displaced communities and additional issues besides. This unique collection of topics is both challenging and inspiring, providing illumination in troubled times, and forming a sound foundation for future scholarship. Read the introduction here.
2017/11 Book Chapter Published. “Love, Friendship, and the Sacred in Today’s World,” Il Silenzio del Sacro: La demensione religiosa nei rapporti interculturali (Colle di Val d’Elsa: Fondazione Intercultura Onlus, November 2017). How have love and friendship been understood in the West and in other cultures? How are love and friendship complicated by factors such as gender and religiocultural difference? How do forces of fear and loneliness cut us off from each other and from the sacred? How do love and friendship exemplify key dynamics of mystery, otherness, and recognition as we week to know the divine and each other and live together in society? How do modern technologies of communication and social media connect or divide us from love and friendship from each other and from what is sacred, just, and good? These are some of the key questions that emerge at the intersection of love and friendship in today’s world.
2017/9/30 Book Chapter Published. “Jean Bethke Elshtain,” in Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction, eds. John Witte, Jr. and Gary S. Hauk (Cambridge University Press). This chapter examines the influence on family law of Christian ethicist and political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain. Through a review of Elshtain’s writings on feminism and liberalism, the embodied nature of family relations, the relation of private and public spheres of family and society, and the limits of law, the chapter examines the contributions of Elshtain’s chastened legalism and ironic liberalism to Christian thought on families and the law.
2017/5/14 Fourth ACLARS Volume Published. Religious Pluralism, Heritage and Social Development, edited with Rosalind I.J. Hackett, Len Hansen, and Francois Venter, published f or release at the fifth international conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, held in Rabat, Morocco. What is heritage in Africa? Who defines and authorises heritage? Is heritage limited to tangible forms of land, resources and monuments, or do intangible forms of heritage, such as cultural and religious heritage, count equally or even more? How is heritage managed, appropriated, expropriated and commodified by the government and state, by heritage experts and professionals, and by religious and ethnic groups in service of cultural and tourism industries and in the construction of national and other group identities? How is heritage shaped by Africa’s religious and ethnic pluralism, its colonial past and its postcolonial trajectories? Finally, how can heritage serve as a means toward social, cultural and political development? These are just some of the many issues and questions addressed in this volume by scholars in law, religion and related fields. Read the introduction here.
2017/4/1 Workshop Conducted. Workshop presentation on “Love, Friendship, and the Sacred in Today’s World, given at the international conference, “The Unspoken Sacred: The Religious Dimension of Intercultural Dialogue,” convened by the Fondazione Intercultura onlus in Bari, Italy.
2016/12/15 Social Media Editing Begun. Assumed duties as social media editor for the Commonwealth Initiative for Freedom of Religion and Belief (CIFoRB), based at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham, UK, to foster understanding, debate, and networking among Commonwealth parliamentarians on FoRB matters under Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key duties include maintaining the initiative’s Twitter feed and project blog.
2016/8/30 Blog Post Published. Blog post “Loss, Lament, and Prophetic Modernities,” published at the Contending Modernities project at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
2016/6/2 Research Presented. Research on “Is There a Religious Freedom Right to Join the Islamic State?” presented on the Law and Religion panel at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association in New Orleans, Louisiana.
2016/5/23 Book Chapter Published. “Freedom, Persecution, and the Status of Christian Minorities,” written with John Witte, Jr., was published in the The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Christianity, eds. Lamin Sanneh and Michael McClymond (Wiley-Blackwell, May 2016). The chapter chronicles the religious freedom of Christian minorities in persecution hot-spots around the world, with special attention to Afghanistan, Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
2016/5/17 Third ACLARS Volume Published. Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa: Problems and Prospects, edited by Pieter Coertzen, M. Christian Green, and Len Hansen published for release at the fourth international conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Africa continues to be a region with strong commitments to religious freedom and religious pluralism. These, however, are rarely mere facts on the ground – they are legal, political, social, and theological projects that require considerable effort to realise. This volume – compiling the proceedings of the third annual conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies – focuses on various issues which vastly effect the understanding of religious pluralism in Africa. These include, amongst others, religious freedom as a human right, the importance of managing religious pluralism, and the permissibility of religious practice and observance in South African public schools.
2016/5/9 Blog Post Published. Post titled,“Beyond British Islamophobia?: The Election of Sadiq Khan,” published at the Contending Modernities project at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.
2016/1/9 Dartmouth Medal Awarded. The Dartmouth Medal for excellence in reference was awarded by the American Library Association to The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law, Brent Strawn, et al. eds. (Oxford University Press, 2015). My article therein, “Modern Legal Traditions: Africa,” addresses the relationship between the bible and law in Africa, particularly attempts to implement “biblical” law or otherwise instantiate Christian norms in African legal system. It focuses particularly on the “Christian nation” constitutional debates in Zambia and Liberia and sexuality debates in Uganda, as well as issues of marriage, polygamy, and religious pluralism.
2015/11/21-24 Conference Presentations. My presentations at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion included “Questionable Martyrdom: Contemporary Disputes over Its Nature and Scope” a paper presented to the Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Group, “Religion and Gender in the Balkan Genocides: Unlearned Lessons for 21st Century Conflicts” a paper presented to the Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Group, and participation in a Co-Editors Meet Critics roundtable on Politics of Religious Freedom, edited by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Saba Mahmood, and Peter G. Danchin, that was convened by the Law, Religion, and Culture Group.
2015/9/25 Book Chapter Published. “Sovereignty and Chastened Liberalism,” in Whose Will Be Done?: Essays on Sovereignty and Religion, John Dyck, Paul Rowe, and Jens Zimmermann, eds. (Lexington Books, 2015).This chapter examines Jean Bethke Elshtain’s concept of sovereignty at the level of both the individual and the state in the cosmopolitan world of modernity. It places Elshtain’s Christian realist notion of sovereignty in dialogue with the “chastened liberal” perspective of Georgia Harkness, who in 1939 became the first woman appointed to teach theology and ethics in an American theological seminary. Separated by nearly a half century, Elshtain and Harkness shared common interests in theology, ethics, politics, war, and the role of women in the church and academia, but they often differed on their particular responses, including matters of sovereignty. But they can also both be said to share a critical Christian perspective on individualism, liberalism, and the role of the nation-state in the modern world. The chapter compares and contrasts Elshtain’s Christian realist views with Harkness’ “chastened liberal” perspective in assessing the sovereignty of individuals and states and their capacities for hospitable and cosmopolitan responses in a world of individual self-sovereignty, religious pluralism, and human rights.
2015/07/14 Course Unit Taught. Course unit on “Religious Freedom, Religious Pluralism, and Freedom of Expression” taught at “Creating a More Perfect Union in the Bible Belt: Building Community and Cultural Understanding through the Study of Religion and Civil Society” a summer workshop for community college instructors convened by the American Democracy Project of the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the NEH’s “Bridging Cultures” initiative.
2015/06/10 Paper Presented. “Religious Freedom, Secularism, and Gender Equality: Comparing France and Quebec.” Paper presented at the conference “Religion and Equality,” at the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Faculty of Law, June 9-11, 2015.
2015/06/04 Chapter Published. “From Social Hostility to Social Media: Religious Pluralism, Human Rights, and Democratic Reform in Africa,” in Religious Rights, Lorenzo Zucca, ed. (Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming July 2015). In this article, I examine the new terrain of religious freedom and human rights in Africa, with particular attention to role of social hostilities in restricting religious. In the current environment of “postsecularism” and the global resurgence of religion the relationship between government restrictions and social hostilities is particularly complex in Africa, in light of the high degree of religiosity and the notably intertwined relationship of religion, culture, politics, and law, in marked contrast to the secularist and separationist paradigms that prevail in Europe and North America. Paradoxically, though the restrictions on religious freedom in many African nations stem from or have been exacerbated by social hostilities, including pernicious and inflammatory uses of social media, solutions to social hostilities may depend a great deal on empowering religious and civil society groups in the creative and constructive use of social media to change the normative perceptions, attitudes, values, and that underlie successful constitutional and democratic reform. Indeed, some of these creative uses of social media are already happening, but are threatened by crackdowns on freedom of expression and social media by the state. This article will examine uses of social media both to inflame and to reduce social hostilities in recent elections and constitutional referenda in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.
2015/05/29 Book Review Published. Review of Religion, the Secular, and the Politics of Sexual Difference, edited by Linell E. Cady and Tracy Fessenden (Columbia University Press, 2013), Journal of Law and Religion 30:2 (June 2015). Book explores women’s rights and gender equality–and the relative capacities of religion and secularism to achieve them. Shows how religious actors, particularly women, have worked to expand women’s rights and dispels the myth that secularism is always the best route to gender equality.
2015/05/29 Paper Presented.“Religion as Identity in a Postsecular World.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, May 28-31, 2015. This paper addresses religion and postsecularism through the lens of global religious ethics. Taking up recent discussions of the “impossibility of religious freedom” and the “politics of religious freedom,” she argues both for the possibility and the necessity of attempts to define and delineate religion, particularly in cases of religious conflict that may include violations of religious human rights. Case studies considered include religious conversion, French veil debates, and the religiosity of jihadi “foreign fighters.” The difficulty and fluidity of definitions of religion in the post-secular world should not dissuade us from seeking to understand what religion is–particularly when the definition of religion is increasingly shifting from questions of texts and tradition, and rituals and practices, to a new understanding of “religion as identity.”
2015/05/19 Presentation Given. “Ten Points on Law and Religion Scholarship in Africa,” at the third international conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies in Windhoek, Namibia. This presentation summarized themes from the first three conferences and pointed to new themes and directions for further research.
2015/05/19 Second ACLARS Volume Published. Editor with Pieter Coertzen and Len Hansen, Law and Religion in Africa–The Quest for the Common Good in Pluralistic Societies (SUN Press, 2015). In our time the study of law and religion is emerging as a wide-ranging and vital academic discipline, with increasingly urgent implications for society at large. Lying at the intersection of a variety of other disciplines – law, theology, religious studies, political science, sociology and anthropology, to name only the most obvious – the field of law and religion is generating a burgeoning volume of interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research and study. The current volume is proof of this. The discussion of the relationship between law and religion, as seen from a variety of perspectives in Africa, underscores the critical importance of the issues involved in the everyday life of all citizens. It is accordingly vital for governments to take note of the scholarly results that are produced. We hope that this volume will contribute to this aim.
2015/04/01 Invited Presentation. “Author Meets Critics: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Politics of Religious Freedom.” Roundtable session with Winnifred Fallers Sullivan in recognition of her forthcoming (co-edited) book, The Politics of Religious Freedom. This volume promises to be a major contribution to scholarship on religious freedom, and to scholarship on “law” and “religion” more broadly. There is already a substantial body of literature on the comparative study of religious freedom. The essays in this volume, and their framing prefatory essays, take a new turn by asking what kinds of political and legal worlds are or have been produced by religious freedom advocacy. In the words of the editors, “what exactly is bring promoted through the discourse of religious freedom, and what is not?” The volume interrogates what counts as religion in religious freedom legislation, with what consequences. The result is new critical and historical perspective on a right — religious liberty — which is generally supposed to be neutral, stable, and emancipatory, but which yields results that are diverse, contradictory, and sometimes discriminatory. To be convened by the Law, Religion, and Culture Group of the American Academy of Religion at the 2015 annual meeting.
2015/04/01 Paper Proposal Accepted. “Religion and Gender in the Balkan Genocides: Unlearned Lessons for 21st Century Conflicts.” With time, the Yugoslav Wars have come to be seen more as ethnic wars than wars with significant religious dimensions. As well, even amidst the feminist literature on the Balkan wars, there is little literature on the confluence of religion and gender–even though the genocides were significantly sexually enacted through the mass rape and forced pregnancy aimed at reproductively eradicating particular religious and ethnicities. In this paper, I will seek to uncover these dimensions of the Balkan genocides and how religion and gender may be taking on greater importance today in other global conflicts. It may be that we have not fully learned the lessons of the Balkan genocides when it comes to religion and gender. In this paper, I shall seek to resurrect these lessons with a view to what we need to learn from the Balkan genocides when it comes to religion and violence today. To be presented to the Religion, Holocaust, and Genocide Group of the American Academy of Religion at the 2015 annual meeting.
2015/3/31 Paper Proposal Accepted. “Questionable Martyrdom: Contemporary Disputes over Its Nature and Scope.” From religious minorities in Iraq and Syria to the ISIS jihadis who persecute them, modern claims of martyrdom have proliferated in connection with ISIS and other terrorist groups. A year before the rise of ISIS, journalist John L. Allen Jr. published The Global War on Christians, in which he articulated a wide, but controversial, definition of modern martyrdom. More recently, conservative religious groups in the U.S. have argued that their religious freedom is imperiled by health insurance laws that require contraception coverage or which require them to recognize same-sex marriage. These definitions and equivalences of martyrdom claims are broad, but are they accurate, appropriate, and just? The paper examines rhetorical uses of martyrdom in contemporary religious and political discourse at the interdisciplinary intersection of law, religion, and ethics to shed light on the nature and scope of the violence of martyrdom and situations that demand it. Presented to the Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Group at the 2015 American Academy of Religion annual meeting.
2015/03/26 Invitation Finalized. “Creating a More Perfect Union in the Bible Belt: Building Community and Cultural Understanding through the Study of Religion and Civil Society” a summer workshop to take place at the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the NEH’s “Bridging Cultures” initiative. Serving as Academic Consultant and Faculty Presenter at this week-long workshop on religious pluralism and civil society.
2015/01/30 Encyclopedia Article Published. “Modern Legal Traditions: Africa,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law, Brent Strawn, et al. eds. (Oxford University Press, 2015). This article addresses the relationship between the bible and law in Africa, particularly attempts to implement “biblical” law or otherwise instantiate Christian norms in African legal system. It focuses particularly on the “Christian nation” constitutional debates in Zambia and Liberia and sexuality debates in Uganda, as well as issues of marriage, polygamy, and religious pluralism.
2015/01/27 Paper Invited. “Religious Freedom, Secularism, and Gender Equality: Comparing France and Quebec,” paper to be presented at the conference “Religion and Equality,” at the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Faculty of Law, June 9-11, 2015.
2015/01/12 Paper Proposal Accepted. “Religion as Identity in a Postsecular World.“ This paper addresses religion and postsecularism through the lens of global religious ethics. Taking up recent discussions of the “impossibility of religious freedom” and the “politics of religious freedom,” she argues both for the possibility and the necessity of attempts to define and delineate religion, particularly in cases of religious conflict that may include violations of religious human rights. The difficulty and fluidity of definitions of religion in the post-secular world should not dissuade us from seeking to understand what religion is–particularly when the definition of religion is increasingly shifting from questions of texts and tradition, and rituals and practices, to a new understanding of “religion as identity.” To be presented at the Law and Society Association annual meeting in May 2015.
2015/01/5-10 Intensive Training Course Taught. “Religion and Conflict: Practical Policy Responses.” Served as academic lead for an executive-level, intensive training course for the Faith & Globalisation Project of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Course was taught to diplomats and public officials from around the world in Pristina, Kosovo. Led units on Religion and Domestic and Foreign Policy: An Overall Framing, Religion and Conflict in the Central African Republic, Religious Freedom and Human Rights, and Religion as a Transnational force. See my interview “Religionising Conflict.”
2015/01/03 Call for Papers. See the call for papers for the the upcoming third international conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, “Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa: Prospects and Limitations,” to be held at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia, May 18-19, 2015.
2014/12/20 Blog Indexed. The blog Cakewalks and Climbingwalls is now being indexed at the ACI Scholarly Blog Index.
11/23-24/2014 Papers Presented. “Naming ‘Religious’ Conflict in the Central African Republic” and “Quebec Charter of Values–Secularism, Nationalism, and Islamophobia?” presented at annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego.
2014/11/02 Article Accessible Online John Witte, Jr. and M. Christian Green “Freedom, Persecution, and the Status of Christian Minorities,” in the Blackwell Companion to World Christianity, eds. Lamin Sanneh and Michael McClymond (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, forthcoming February 2015) is now accessible online at the Social Science Research Network.
2014/10/29 A Blog is Born! Cakewalks and Climbingwalls, a blog about law, religion, ethics, politics, academia, and the “real world” is now live. Happy reading!
2014/10/09 Selected for Re-Publication. The article, “From Social Hostility to Social Media: Religious Pluralism, Human Rights, and Democratic Reform in Africa,” originally published in M. Christian Green, Guest Editor, Symposium Issue, “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects” African Human Rights Law Journal 14:1 (May 2014) has been selected for inclusion in in Religious Rights, Lorenzo Zucca, ed. (Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming April 2015).
2014/9/18 New Blog Post. With Amy Ziettlow and Naomi Cahn, “Women, Eldercare, and the Honor Commandment,” at the Women, Religion, and the Family Project of the Word Faiths Development Dialogue at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University.
2014/9/18 New Blog Post. “What’s ‘Religious’ About the CAR Crisis?” in the Religion and Geopolitics blog at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Descriptive blurb: “With the arrival this week of UN peacekeeping forces in the Central African Republic, M. Christian Green looks at the motivations and drivers of a conflict that is so often characterised as being divided along religious lines.”
2014/7/21 Book Review Published. Review of James E. Fleming and Linda C. McClain, Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues (Harvard University Press, 2013) published in Critical Research on Religion 2:2 (August 2014).
2014/5/28 New Organization Incorporated. The African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies.
2014/5/27. Article Published. “From Social Hostility to Social Media: Religious Pluralism, Human Rights, and Democratic Reform in Africa,” African Human Rights Law Journal 14:1 (May 2014): 93-125. This article addresses rising social hostilities around religion and ethnicity in Africa and efforts to either inflame or ameliorate these through Africa’s rising social media culture. It particularly addresses recent constitutional debates in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia surrounding issues of religious pluralism and Muslim-Christian relations, while also arguing for positive and constructive uses of social media aimed at promoting pluralism and peace. Presented at the first conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects,” convened by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and co-sponsoring organizations at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana, January 14, 2013.
2014/5/27 Edited Journal Published. Guest Editor, Symposium Issue, “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects” African Human Rights Law Journal, 14:1 (May 2014). Proceedings of the first conference of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects,” convened by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and co-sponsoring organizations at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana, January 14-15, 2013.
2014/03/27 Conference Paper Proposal Accepted. “Quebec Charter of Values–Secularism, Nationalism, and Islamophobia?” has been accepted onto the program of the upcoming 2014 annual conference of the American Academy of Religion. Abstract: This paper examines the debate over the proposed Quebec Charter of Values and its limitations on the wearing of “conspicuous” religious symbols in comparison to the 2010 French veil debate and the ongoing debate over proposals for a list of “British Values” in the United Kingdom. The paper will examine the possibilities for religious accommodation and religious pluralism and the specter of Islamophobia, comparatively and transnationally, in contexts where the “religious nationalism” is a “secular nationalism.”
2014/03/24 Forthcoming Chapter. A contract has been issued for John Dyck, Paul Rowe and Jens Zimmermann, eds. Whose Will be Done? Essays on Sovereignty and Religion (Lexington Books, forthcoming 2014/5), which will include the chapter “Sovereignty and Chastened Liberalism” by M. Christian Green. Abstract: This chapter will examine Elshtain’s concept of sovereignty at the level of both the individual and the state in the cosmopolitan world of modernity. It will do so by placing Elshtain’s Christian realist notion of sovereignty in dialogue with the “chastened liberal” perspective of Georgia Harkness, who in 1939 became the first woman appointed to teach theology and ethics in an American theological seminary. Separated by nearly a half century, Elshtain and Harkness shared common interests in theology, ethics, politics, war, and the role of women in the church and academia, but they often differed on their particular responses, including matters of sovereignty. But they can also both be said to share a critical Christian perspective on individualism, liberalism, and the role of the nation-state in the modern world. The chapter will compare and contrast Elshtain’s Christian realist views with Harkness’ “chastened liberal” perspective in assessing the sovereignty of individuals and states and their capacities for hospitable and cosmopolitan responses in a world of individual self-sovereignty, religious pluralism, and human rights.
2014/03/24 Conference Paper Proposal Accepted. “Naming ‘Religious’ Conflict in the Central African Republic” has been accepted onto the program of the upcoming 2014 annual conference of the American Academy of Religion. Abstract: This paper examines the recent Muslim-Christian violence in the Central African Republic, which has been characterized by the U.N. as having the potential to result in genocide. It will examine, particularly, the initial reticence among journalists, experts, and commentators to label the conflict “religious” and the eventual consensus to describe the potentially genocidal comment as “religious.” It will incorporate and analyze recent social science data on the correlation between religion and conflict and assess what is at stake strategically, ethically, and in other respects in labeling a conflict “religious”—particularly in light of what we have learned about religion and violence in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and other recent conflicts in Africa.
2014/02/20 Article Published. M. Christian Green, “Between Blasphemy and Critique: Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech” (review essay), Journal of Law and Religion 29:2 (February 2014): 176-96.
2013/12/9 Book Chapter Published. M. Christian Green and John Witte, Jr., “Religion,” in The Oxford Handbook on International Human Rights Law ed. Dinah Shelton (Oxford University Press, 2013), 9-31. An exploration of the basis for human rights in Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
2013/10/25 Mentor Remembered, Part 2. Read my article “Androgyny or Antigone: Jean Bethke Elshtain’s Feminism” at the Center for Public Justice discussing the contributions of Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago to feminist ethics and women’s studies.
2013/09/18. Book Chapter Published. 
The article “Religious Freedom, Democracy, and International Human Rights,” written with John Witte, Jr., has been republished in The Library of Essays on Law and Religion, Vol. IV, Current Issues in Law and Religion, Silvio Ferrari and Rinaldo Cristofori, eds. (Ashgate Publishing, 2013).
2013/09/05 Mentor Remembered, Part 1. Read my memorial to Professor Jean Bethke Elshtain of the University of Chicago at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
2013/09/03 Summer Reading Featured. In an “Off the Cuff” round-up of reflections on summer reading on topics of secularism, religion, and the public sphere at The Immanent Frame blog at the Social Science Research Council.
2013/08/07 Bioethics Report Cited. New York Times editorial writer Charles Blow writes a column mentioning the newly released Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life report, “Living to 120 and Beyond: Americans’ View on Aging, Medical Advances and Radical Life Extension,” with an appendix on “Religious Leaders’ Views on Radical Life Extension” containing a link to the report “Extending Human Life: Scientific, Ethical, and Social Considerations & Challenges for the Church,” that I co-authored with colleagues from the Boston Theological Institute for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 2007.
2013/07/15 Book Chapter Published. The hardback version of Marie A. Failinger, Elizabeth R. Schiltz, and Susan J. Stabile, eds. Feminism, Law, and Religion, (Ashgate Publishing, 2013), containing my chapter “From Third Wave to Third Generation: Feminism, Faith, and Human Rights” has been published, with the paperback version to come on July 28, 2013. Your August beach reading has arrived!
2013/06/29 Book Review Published. My review of Religion and Rights: The Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2008, edited by Wes Williams (Manchester University Press, 2008) has just been published online at the Journal of Church and State.
2013/06/18 Article Published. “Religious and Legal Pluralism in Recent African Constitutional Reform,” Journal of Law and Religion 28:2 (Spring 2013): 401-39. A tour of recent events involving religion, pluralism, constitutionalism, and Muslim Kadhis’ Courts in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.
2013/04/25 Breakfast with an Author. Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction, recent winner of a CHOICE award for “Outstanding Title, 2012” in religion, has been accepted for a “breakfast with an author” session at the 2014 Society of Christian Ethics meeting. Sign up for the session when registration opens to discuss comparative religion and human rights, with special attention to the expansive and forward-looking area of “third generation human rights”–peace, prosperity, global health, environmental sustainability, migrant and refugee rights, religious pluralism, etc.–and how religions can nurture and sustain them.
2013/04/23 Book Review Published. My review of After Secular Law, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, Robert Yelle, and Matteo Taussig-Rubbo, eds. (Stanford University Press, 2011) has just been published online at the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
2013/04/15 Forthcoming Book Chapter. A publication date of September 18, 2013, has been assigned for The Oxford Handbook on International Human Rights Law, edited by Dinah Shelton. The handbook includes the chapter,”Religion,” by M. Christian Green and John Witte, Jr., providing an overview of human rights in the world’s religions.
2013/02/25 Forthcoming Book Chapter. M. Christian Green, “From Third Wave to Third Generation: Feminism, Faith, and Human Rights,” in Feminism, Law, and Religion, Marie A. Failinger, Elizabeth R. Schiltz, and Susan J. Stabile, eds. (Ashgate Publishing, forthcoming July 2013). The first-ever anthology of writings on law and religion from a feminist perspective. Don’t leave for your August beach vacation without it!
2013/01/22 Book Award. Religion and Human Rights Named ‘Choice’ Outstanding Book Award for 2012. Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2012) by CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. and Senior Fellow M. Christian Green has been named an Outstanding Academic Book of 2012 by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. Choice is the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community.
2013/01/14 Conference Presentation. “Religious and Legal Pluralism in Recent African Constitutional Reform,” presented at the conference “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects,” convened by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and co-sponsoring organizations at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
2013/01/02 Book Award: Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction has been selected as an Outstanding Academic Title, 2012–one of 23 titles selected in the Religion category–by CHOICE, a publication of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Book selections in religion “promote the academic study of diverse faith traditions throughout the world, whether established major religions, new religious movements, or newly recognized religious expressions” and “describe, explain, analyze, or critique religion in its philosophical, historical, psychological, sociological, political, or scientific dimensions.” For more information, see the book’s description on the publisher website.
2012/10/24 Web Forum Response. “‘Culture’ and ‘Religion’: Immigration, Islams, and Race in 1970s Paris,” a chapter of Naomi Davidson’s book Only Muslim: Embodying Islam in Twentieth Century France at the Religion and Culture Web Forum of the Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Read it here.
2012/10/18 Forthcoming Article. “Religious and Legal Pluralism in Recent African Constitutional Reform” has been submitted for publication. Look for it in the Spring 2013 issue of the Journal of Law and Religion. The article will also be the basis for a presentation at the conference “Law and Religion in Africa: Comparative Practices, Experiences, and Prospects” being convened at the University of Ghana by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies in January 2013.
2012/10/15 Forthcoming Article. “Religious Freedom, Democracy, and International Human Rights,” written with John Witte, Jr., has been selected for reprinting in The Library of Essays on Law and Religion, edited by Silvio Ferrari and Rinaldo Cristofori and forthcoming from Ashgate Publishing in June 2013.
2012/08/13 More “Ethics of Bystanders to Divorce” in the Blogosphere. See the Huffington Post posting by Vicki Larson here.
2012/08/03 “The Ethics of Bystanders to Divorce” Enters the Blogosphere. Read the posting by psychologist and ethicist, Sidney Callahan, in America magazine here.
2012/07/11 Senior Fellow M. Christian Green writes on the effects of “Divorce Culture” on Bystanders. Senior Fellow M. Christian Green recently published an article entitled “‘There but for the Grace’: The Ethics of Bystanders to Divorce” in Propositions, a newsletter produced by the Center for Public Conversation of the Institute for American Values. She suggests that divorce might not best be viewed merely as a personal choice only affecting the couple and immediate family, but one that impacts those in the broader culture as well. Placing divorce in conversation with the burgeoning field of cultural trauma studies and social contagion, Green offers an insightful look into the effects of the “divorce culture” on bystanders.
2012/07/09 Just Published Online. “There but for the Grace: The Ethics of Bystanders to Divorce” has just been published at the Center for Public Conversation. The article is an excerpt from a paper written as part of an Institute for American Values project titled “Does the Shape of Families Shape Faith?” directed by Elizabeth Marquardt. The paper explores how social science theories of “social networks,” “contagion effects,” and “cultural trauma” can inform a “bystander ethic” regarding divorce and other cultural events and trends.
2012/05/04 Just Published Online. “Teaching ‘Overcoming Violence’: Reflections on Violence, Peace, and Practical Theology,” by M. Christian Green, Rodney L. Petersen, Thomas J. Massaro, S.J., has just been published at Practical Matters, an online multimedia journal of the the Graduate Division of Religion and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. The course profile comes on the five-year anniversary of the course, originally taught by Green, Petersen, Massaro and other members of the Boston Theological Institute at Harvard Divinity School in Spring 2007. The article and course materials appear in an. issue focused on religion, violence, and peace.
2012/04/18 Book Recommendation. Sex, Marriage, and Family in World Religions, ed. Don S. Browning, M. Christian Green, and John Witte, Jr. (Columbia University Press. 2006) was recently recommended in The Christian Century. See the review here.
2012/03/27 Forthcoming Article. “Religious Pluralism and African Constitutional Reform” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Law and Religion and will be forthcoming in the Spring 2013 issue. The article discusses the role of religion in recent constitutional reforms in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia with particular focus on the issue of Sharia courts and relations between the Christian majority and Muslim minority in each country.
2012/02/03 Rethinking Religion and World Affairs, Timothy Samuel Shah, Alfred J. Stepan, and Monica Duffy Toft, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2012) is available at Amazon.com. Contains the chapter “Religious Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights” by John Witte, Jr. and M. Christian Green and the “Internet Resource Guide to Religion and World Affairs” by M. Christian Green with Nicole Greenfield. This book is a project of the Social Science Research Council, with funding from the Henry Luce Foundation.
2011/12/15 Symposium Law Review Issue, “Sharia, Family, and Democracy: Religious Norms and Family Law in Pluralistic Democratic States” has been published at the Emory International Law Review. The issue includes my article “Religion, Family Law, and Recognition of Identities in Nigeria.” The symposium issue is part of the larger project titled “Sharia, Family, and Democracy in Nigeria and Beyond,” funded by the Social Science Research Council.
2011/12/14 New Book Aims to Bridge Religion and Human Rights Gap. A new book edited by CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. and CSLR Senior Fellow M. Christian Green, Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2011) explores how the intersecting roles of religion and human rights can build a more effective human rights culture in the world.. The book is a product of CSLR’s project on “Law, Religion and Human Rights in International Perspective,” funded by The Henry Luce Foundation. The volume includes 22 chapters from ranking experts who provide an authoritative yet accessible treatment of the issues. Part one explores human rights and the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Indigenous Religions. Part two looks at religion and modern human rights issues, including the freedoms of conscience, choice, expression, religion or belief; the rights of women and children; and economic, social, cultural, environmental, peace rights.
2011/10/27 Available at Amazon. John Witte, Jr. and M. Christian Green, eds. Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2011).
2011/10/18 Spotlight on Syllabus. The syllabus for the course “Overcoming Violence: Practical Theology and Conflict Resolution,” taught by M. Christian Green, Rodney Petersen, Thomas Massaro, and other members of the Boston Theological Institute at Harvard Divinity School in Spring 2007 will be published with commentary and multimedia resources in a forthcoming issue of the journal Practical Matters, published by the Graduate Division of Religion and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. The issue will focus on religion, violence, and peace.
2011/09/28 Forthcoming Book Chapter: The anthology Feminism, Law, and Religion, edited by Marie Failinger, Elisabeth R. Schiltz, and Susan Stabile, has been accepted for publication at Ashgate. The volume will include my chapter titled “Feminism, Faith, and Human Rights in the ‘Third Generation’.”
2011/09/21 Advance Review: An advance mention of the forthcoming volume Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction, John Witte Jr. and M. Christian Green eds. (Oxford University Presss, forthcoming October 27, 2011) by Professor Mary Ann Glendon of Harvard Law School, delivering the 2011 Harold J. Berman Lecture at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion can be viewed here.
2011/08/03 Forthcoming Book: Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction will be published at Oxford University Press on October 27, 2011. For more information, see the book’s description on the publisher website.
2011/05/12 Blog Posting:“Burqas, Blobs, and Bans in ‘la belle France’,” by M. Christian Green at Contending Modernities.
2011/04/21 Presentation: “Religion, Recognition, and Conflict Prevention.” Presentation at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
2011/04/10 New Resource: Religion and International Affairs Network. The database, accessible directly here, is sponsored by the Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, is now available online at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
2011/04/01 Forthcoming Book: Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction, edited by John Witte, Jr., and M. Christian Green, has been assigned a production schedule at Oxford University Press and will be forthcoming in Fall 2011.
2010/12/13 New Blog Encourages Productive Debate on Shari`a Implementation CSLR has started a blog, “Shari’a, Family, and Democracy in Nigeria and Beyond,” as part of a larger project that examines how Western democracies with Muslim minorities can have a productive conversation with Muslim countries that implemented Shari’a, particularly on issues of marriage and family law.
2010/09/14 CSLR Receives Grant to Study Shari’a The Social Science Research Council has awarded CSLR a major grant to examine how Western democracies with Muslim minorities can have a productive conversation with Muslim countries that have tried to implement Shari’a, particularly on domestic relations issues.
2009/02/19 CSLR Research Yields Five New Volumes “The Foundations and Future of Law, Religion and Human Rights in Africa”: This volume represents the outcome of a major three-day roundtable conference with a score of leading religious liberty scholars, advocates, judges, NGO heads, and media personnel from various parts of Africa, in Durban, South Africa, in the Spring of 2008. The conference situated and complicated the discourse on religion, culture, and human rights in Africa.
2008/7/18 Conference Raises Questions about Language of Religion Western perceptions of religion and church-state relations must be put aside before productive conversations about law, religion, and human rights can take place in sub-Saharan Africa, according to religious liberty scholars and activists who took part in a conference hosted by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) April 30-May 3, 2008, in Durban, South Africa.
2008/01/14 Green to Explore New Religion and Human Rights Horizon 01/14/08 M. Christian Green (’95L) has returned to Emory Law as the Alonzo McDonald Family Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) where she is researching religious human rights issues of the new millennium.
2006/12/20 Panel Takes on Domestic Violence. “‘Where is the church in the midst of this public health problem? And what does our faith call on us to do?’ Those were the two questions with which Cheryl Giles, the Francis Greenwood Peabody Professor of the Practice in Pastoral Care and Counseling, introduced a panel discussion on domestic violence, subtitled ‘Awareness and Engagement in Faith and Non-Faith Communities.’ The event, which took place Nov. 30 at the Harvard Divinity School’s Andover Hall, was sponsored by the HDS Women’s Caucus.”
2006/10/20 Ancient Religious Texts Advise on ‘Modern’ Family Issues Sex, Marriage, & Family in World Religions (Columbia University Press) reveals that ancient religious texts are surprisingly explicit about such “modern” family issues as divorce, adultery, property rights, and conjugal manners.
2006/10/16 Future Stem of Cell Research Debated. “The first Harvard College Stem Cell Symposium, sponsored by the student-run Harvard College Stem Cell Society (HCSCS), examined the interaction between science and society, and panelists outlined current research efforts as well as the political debate surrounding stem cell research. . . . M. Christian Green, a visiting lecturer on ethics at Harvard Divinity School, urged scientists to remember that “faith, hope, and love are as important in science as they are in theology.”
2006/05/14 When the Moment Passes: Hurricane Katrina Relief Trip at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Spring Break 2006. This March, during spring break, 24 members of the HDS community traveled to Mississippi as part of the ongoing effort to rebuild a Gulf Coast region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The group—made up of students, faculty, and staff—spent a week living and working in the town of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, a small coastal community about 100 miles from New Orleans.
M. Christian Green 