3 Understanding the religion in freedom of religion

Abstract

In our pursuit of an inclusive, egalitarian, individual-rights-respecting polity, we are often tempted to interpret freedom of religion as though it were designed to place religious belief on a par with other beliefs – as though it were designed to secure an absolute equality in religious matters (equality, that is, between religion and non-religion, as well as among different religious beliefs). This view is the centrepiece of an important new book by Christopher Eisgruber and Larry Sager, 1 which Sager defends ably in his contribution to this volume. Indeed, Eisgruber and Sager do more than simply assume that religious and non-religious beliefs must be treated the same: they argue that a commitment to equality and liberty alone is sufficient to generate the entire content of freedom of religion, without attaching any value to the distinctive nature of religious belief.