Freedom of Religion



Freedom of Religion

Edited by William Sweet

Freedom of religion is asserted in the constitutions and the charters and bills of rights of nations around the world, and yet it is one of the most contested of the basic human freedoms. From the ‘Rock Edicts’ of King Piyadasi in the third century BCE, to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities of 1992, we find repeated the statement that communities and individuals should be free to believe and to worship as they wish, and not be subject to compulsion or restriction on matters of religion. But at the same time, the claim to this freedom has consistently met with resistance if not outright opposition, and even today many countries attempt to restrict religious practice, proselytizing, and change of belief or conversion.

This volume, which brings together the work of

scholars from Canada, the United States, central and eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, presents varied and distinctive analyses of the freedom of religion and the, political, sociological, theological, and philosophical issues involved.

William Sweet is Professor of Philosophy

at St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

312 pages, 5 ½" x 8 ½", paperbound, CDN $19.95

ISBN: 978-81-89958-32-9

Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2010

distributed by Centre for Philosophy, Theology, and Cultural Traditions, Canada

please makes cheques payable to: Philosophy, Culture and Traditions,

c/o St Francis Xavier University, Box 5000, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5 Canada

tel: 902 867 2341; fax: 902 867 3243; e-mail: unionmondiale@

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