Blasphemy, Cultural Divergence and Legal Relativism

Abstract

The offence of blasphemy was by the 1970s typically dismissed as an archaism existing at the margins of the criminal law, practically obsolete and of little social significance or broader analytical interest, there having been no successful prosecution in Elfty years. In contrast, the debate which began then and still continues now as to whether the offence should be retained, reformed or abolished has assumed major socio-legal importance. The exchanges which characterise this debate raise fundamental issues relating to law, religion and politics, and can be read as a commentary on the relationship between law and culture in Britain at the end of the twentieth century, and as symptomatic of some of the pivotal conflicts which are characteristic of late modern societies. At a point when legal developments are set to excite renewed controversy, this article explores the social and cultural signiElcance of the offence and of the legal strategies which are in question. The initial section examines the involvement of the law of blasphemy in uncertainties surrounding the impact of secularisation and cultural pluralism, which invest it with considerable symbolic consequence. In order to illuminate the nature of the offence, there follows an account of its parameters and a critical analysis of its relationship to laws dealing with the adjacent areas of sedition, obscenity, outrage to public decency and offences against public order. The third section of the article is concerned with the recent revival of the blasphemy law and assesses the paradoxical nature of its effects, in particular the difElculties that have been posed for liberalism as a political philosophy aspiring to steer society through to an era of plurality and co-existence. Finally, the signiE1cance of a law of blasphemy is related to the question of the status of religion in contemporary western societies, the appropriate response of law, and the conflict that exists between the desire to rationalise the offence and the desire to equalise the protection it affords.