Religion and Public Policy
Human Rights, Conflict, and Ethics

This book pivots around two principal concerns in the modern world: the nature and practice of human rights in relation to religion, and the role of religion in perennial issues of war and peace. It articulates a vision for achieving a liberal peace and a just society firmly grounded in respect for human rights, while working in tandem with the constructive roles that religion can play even amid cultural difference. It explores topics including the status and justification of human rights; the meaning and significance of religious liberty; whether human rights protections ought to be extended to other species; how the comparative study of religious ethics ought to proceed; and the nature, limits, and future development of just war thinking. Featuring a group of distinguished contributors, this is a distinctive contribution that shows a multifaceted and original exploration of cutting edge issues with regards to the aforementioned themes.

Foreword Monica Duffy Toft; Introduction Sumner B. Twiss; Part I. Normative Prospects: Human Rights Ideas and Religious Ethics: 1. David Little: a modern Calvinist architect of human rights John Witte, Jr; 2. On reformed Christianity and natural human rights Gene Outka; 3. Roger Williams and freedom of conscience and religion as a natural right Sumner B. Twiss; 4. Islam and human rights: the religious and the secular in conversation Abdulaziz Sachedina; 5. On grounding human rights: variations on themes by Little John P. Reeder, Jr; 6. From human rights to animal rights? Grace Yia-Hei Kao; 7. Nibbana, dhamma, and sinhala Buddhism: a David Little retrospective Donald K. Swearer; 8. The present state of the comparative study of religious ethics: an update John Kelsay; Part II. Functional Prospects: Religion, Public Policy, and Conflict: 9. Religion, ethics, and war: David Little and ecumenical ethics J. Bryan Hehir; 10. War and the right to life: Orthodox Christian perspectives Marian Gh. Simion; 11. Swords to ploughshares, theory to practice: an evolution of religious peacemaking at USIP Susan Hayward; 12. Religion and multi-track diplomacy Rodney L. Petersen; 13. Developing a human rights lens on religious peacemaking Scott Appleby; 14. Toward a polycentric approach to conflict transformation Atalia Omer; 15. Rethinking Islamic politics: bringing the state back in Scott Hibbard; 16. Religion and politics: seeking a reconciliation Natalie Sherman and David Gergen; 17. The core of public reason: freedom from arbitrary pain and death Christian Rice; Afterword David Little.

Sumner B. Twiss is the Distinguished Professor of Human Rights, Ethics, and Religion at Florida State University, where he holds a joint appointment between the Department of Religion and the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. He is also Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Brown University, where he served on the faculty for thirty years and as department chair for twelve years. He is the co-author and co-editor of seven books, and the author of more than seventy published articles in the areas of comparative religious ethics, biomedical ethics, philosophy of religion, global ethics, intercultural human rights, and the comparative study of just war.
Marian Gh. Simion is a political scientist and Orthodox theologian, currently appointed as Postdoctoral Fellow and Field Education Supervisor at Harvard Divinity School, and a past instructor in the areas of religion, government, and diplomacy at Harvard Extension School. He holds a Master of Theological Studies from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and a PhD in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University, where his academic advisor was Governor Michael S. Dukakis. His general research focuses on international security, comparative politics, political theology, religious phenomenology, Islamic jurisprudence, theory of religion, collective violence, and Orthodox Christianity.
Rodney L. Petersen is a social historian and Protestant theologian. Dr Petersen served as executive director of the Boston Theological Institute (BTI), from 1990 until 2014, becoming director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries and of the Lord's Day Alliance in the US in 2014. He is a research associate at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology. Prior to coming to the BTI, he taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Webster University in Geneva, where he also worked with churches in France and Romania.