“Leo XIV: The Pope of Unity” by Rafael Domingo| Canopy Forum
“Climate Angels at Extinction Rebellion Declaration Day Melbourne” by John Englart (CC BY-SA 2.0) “I don’t want the same world, just eco.” These are the words of an activist interviewed in the 2021 documentary, Rebellion, directed by Maia Kenworthy and Elena Sánchez Bellot. The film tells the story of Extinction Rebellion (XR), arguably one of…Read More| Canopy Forum
“Police Abolitionisms: Political Goals and Religious Ideals” by Charles Guth III| Canopy Forum
Biblical Demons in Modern Healthcare: The Book of Tobit and Health Policy by Nathan Perl, Devorah Shoenfeld, & Daniel Swartzman| Canopy Forum
The Healing of Tobit by Bernardo Strozzi (CC0 1.0). There is ongoing discourse about the relationship between patient agency and external factors in health outcomes. It can be difficult to identify the multifaceted variables that answer the question of why one person becomes ill and not another. While individual action does certainly play a role,…Read More| Canopy Forum
Christian Natural Law and Religious FreedomAlex Deagon The following is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Alex Deagon’s new book, Christian Natural Law and Religious Freedom: A Foundation Based on Love, the True, and the Good (Copyright 2025 by Imprint). Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Group. Page numbers refer to publications linked in…Read More| Canopy Forum
The Inquisition Tribunal by Francisco Goya (PD-Art). Bartolomé de Las Casas (c.1484–1566)—the first Catholic bishop of the Americas—commented on many of the controversies of the Spanish Empire of his day. While he never evaluated the Inquisition in writing, his life intersected with it several times. (Curiously, though Las Casas was possibly descended from conversos, or…Read More| Canopy Forum
Cover Image: Mouth of the Klamath River on the Pacific Ocean, Del Norte County, California / Wikimedia. This article is part of our “Natural Law, Human Rights, and ‘Unalienable Rights” series.If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. The Trump Administration’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights, recently convened by Secretary of…Read More| Canopy Forum
“Open Marriages: A Jewish Couple’s Solution?” by Atid Malka| Canopy Forum
ChatGPT Rendering of AI via Wikimedia Commons (PD). In the spring of 2024, the state of Louisiana faced a critical legal juncture. The newly elected Governor Jeff Landry had begun to speak of the need for a new Louisiana Constitution and to gesture toward the new constitution being drafted by the end of the regular…Read More| Canopy Forum
“Pope Leo XIV Speaks on Natural Law, Human Rights, and Artificial Intelligence” by Matthew P. Cavedon| Canopy Forum
Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine of Hippo via Metropolitan Museum of Art (US-PD). On June 21, Pope Leo XIV delivered one of his first statements on Catholic social teaching. Addressing members of the International Inter-Parliamentary Union, he emphasized themes that are emerging as focuses for his papacy: unity, dialogue, and the challenges presented…Read More| Canopy Forum
John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, (PD-Art). In a recent newsletter to Atlantic subscribers, editor Jeffrey Goldberg refers to the cover story by Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer. They attempt to answer, he says, a simple question: How did Trump rise from political ruin in 2021 to seize the commanding heights of government and the world…Read More| Canopy Forum
Tripura Sundari Hindu Temple via WikiMedia Commons (CC0 1.0) In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and overruled both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In doing so, the Court puts state governments in charge of regulating…Read More| Canopy Forum
The Facade of St. Peter’s Basilica upon Leo XIV’s first appearance via WikiMedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). With the election of Leo XIV, the Catholic Church embarks on a new chapter in its rich universal history–this time set against the backdrop of a globalized and fragmented world, one that is heavily armed and yearning for…Read More| Canopy Forum
Miraculous Fishing by Lodewijk Toeput (PD-Art) Does the Book of Genesis authorize human beings to ruthlessly exploit nature? Many environmentalist critics of Christianity, and some Christians who are overly skeptical of environmentalism, think so. However, a careful reading of the key passage where God gives human beings dominion over creation—Genesis 1:28—reveals this to be a…Read More| Canopy Forum
North Kuwait City by Francisco Anzolaivi (CC BY-SA 2.0) Kuwait, prior to May 2024, presented political scientists with a valuable case study of a hybrid regime within the Middle East: a monarchy under the al-Sabah ruling family held strong and indeed ultimate authority, yet an elected parliament also held significant power to effect policy changes.…Read More| Canopy Forum
The Management and Reuse of Catholic Churches in Belgium, France, and Italy from a Comparative Perspective Davide Dimodugno The following is a translated introduction to Davide Dimodugno’s latest book, La gestione e il riuso delle chiese cattoliche in una prospettiva comparata – Un’indagine tra Belgio, Francia e Italia (Turin, 2025). Dimodugno’s work is available to…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image by Paasikivi on Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) The implementation of Islamic criminal law has been characterized as a paradox. Muslims are scripturally instructed to apply the Qur’anic punishments for “crimes against God” (murder, theft, slander, adultery). Nevertheless, prophetic practice, legal canons, and the evidentiary rules elaborated by Muslim jurists often appear designed to prevent…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image by David Geitgey Sierralupe on Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0) The United States has a policing problem. American police have killed over 1,000 people each year for the past decade and kill at a far higher rate than police in any other wealthy democracy. They use force on over 300,000 people per year, injuring approximately…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image by Bassel Zaki from Pixabay. I spent the last six years studying the politics of intellectuals, broadly understood as people of knowledge. While I mainly focused on some leading Egyptian religious Muslim jurists’ stances on the 2011 Arab Revolutions, I have also observed intellectuals adhering to other traditions at different politically charged moments. As…Read More| Canopy Forum
Basilica of Saint Peter by Carlo Armanni from Pixabay. Pope Francis envisions human fraternity in his 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti. This essay explores how “fraternal pluralism” guides the Church’s respect for personal conscience. This teaching reflects aspects of earlier Church history and the Vatican II document Dignitatis Humanae, and it can be illustrated by examining…Read More| Canopy Forum
Sudanese President Omar al Bashir in Juba, Sudan by Al Jazeera English (CC BY-SA 2.0). On April 15, 2023, civil war broke out in Sudan between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). That day, in the capital of Khartoum, RSF fighters seized the All Saints Anglican Cathedral and transformed…Read More| Canopy Forum
Main chamber of Badshahi Mosque by User:Amjad.m (CC BY-SA 3.0) On January 16th, 2025, the government of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, demolished a historic Ahmadi mosque in the city of Daska. This mosque was built by Zafrullah Khan (1893-1985), Pakistan’s first foreign minister and one of the founding fathers of the country. This is…Read More| Canopy Forum
Baby Goats Resting on the Road by Amaury Laporte (CC BY-SA 2.0). If anyone unfamiliar with Judaism were to be introduced to the concept of a kosher kitchen for the first time, they would likely raise questions. Why does the family have different dishes and cutlery for meat and dairy foods? While that may be…Read More| Canopy Forum
Wake: Why the Battle Over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters Karey Harwood This essay is an adapted excerpt from the third chapter of Karey Harwood’s recently published book, Wake: Why The Battle Over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters (Rutgers University Press, 2024). Reprinted here with permission from Rutgers University Press. When asked to talk about…Read More| Canopy Forum
Jewish Wedding by Wincenty Smokowski (1858, US-PD). Throughout the Pentateuch and subsequently in the books of the Prophets and Writings, readers are confronted with the existence of polygamous relationships – Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon, to name a mere few – but as of the eleventh century CE, Jewish men have been prohibited from taking…Read More| Canopy Forum
Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, Spain. Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). This article is part of our virtual symposium and essay series, “Masking Religious Freedom Violations.” Read more here. Despite common assumptions, our social and political lives do not simply end once we die; the idea of an afterlife, although mainly theological, can also…Read More| Canopy Forum
Istanbul Skyline via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0). This article is part of our virtual symposium and essay series, “Masking Religious Freedom Violations.” Read more here. One of the most grievous periods of Christian history in the land of Turkey spanned much of the 20th century. One episode was the Istanbul pogrom of September 6-7, 1955,…Read More| Canopy Forum
Lake Geneva by Dmitry A. Mottl (CC BY-SA 4.0). This article is part of our virtual symposium and essay series, “Masking Religious Freedom Violations.” Read more here. The analytic systems employed to identify religious freedom violations often run into a barrier erected by two words – religious freedom. These two words are common jargon in…Read More| Canopy Forum
Photo of Cocora Valley, Colombia by Fernanda Fierro on Unsplash. This article is part of our virtual symposium and essay series, “Masking Religious Freedom Violations.” Read more here. Preliminary Contributions of Public Policy Colombia is one of the few countries worldwide with a public policy exclusively dedicated to ensuring the right to religious freedom. This…Read More| Canopy Forum
San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León by Mexico Fotos (CC BY SA 2.0). This article is part of our virtual symposium and essay series, “Masking Religious Freedom Violations.” Read more here. On October 20, 2024, two people on a motorcycle shot at priest Marcelo Perez Perez’s vehicle as he left the parish of Guadalupe, located…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image of Palacio del Centro Asturiano, Havana, Cuba by Carol M. Highsmith (CC0) The following essay is reprinted and adapted on Canopy Forum in collaboration with the journal Derecho en Sociedad, a biannual electronic publication that is free and open access. Their issue 18(2) features full length articles in Spanish and English. Read Flores’ long-form essay on the Cuban…Read More| Canopy Forum
Casa de la Libertad (Freedom House) in Sucre, Bolivia by Dan Lundberg (CC BY-SA 2.0). The Growing Sophistication of Religious Freedom Monitoring When considering research and political attention for religious freedom, we have really come a long way. For a long time, secularization theory was dominant in social sciences. Back in the nineteenth century, German…Read More| Canopy Forum
Picture by Wokandapix on Pixabay. This article is part of our “Kennedy, Carson, and Dobbs: Law and Religion in Pressing Supreme Court Cases” series. If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here. Notwithstanding the fears of the Supreme Court’s critics, who suggest that it intends to eliminate public education by providing…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image by Mariya Popovich from Pixabay This article is part of our “Religious Perspectives on Assisted Reproduction and Surrogacy” series. If you’d like to explore other articles in this series, click here. While a great deal has already been written about cross-racial surrogacy and surrogacy in India, there are, however, no significant or credible studies concerning gestational surrogacy from…Read More| Canopy Forum
Makoko Lagos, Nigeria by Collins Okoh (CC BY-SA 4.0) A longstanding debate in the social sciences concerns whether violence in civil conflicts targets specific groups or is indiscriminate. Security scholar Stathis Kalyvas, in his 2006 seminal book The Logic of Violence in Civil War, argues that indiscriminate violence is less likely when actors have high…Read More| Canopy Forum
St. Isidore of Seville (1655) depicted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (CC0). Introduction As I discussed previously, a controversy arose on June 5, 2023, when Oklahoma’s Statewide Virtual Charter School Board authorized the creation of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Named after the patron saint of the internet, and intended to operate under the leadership of…Read More| Canopy Forum
Image of Ten Commandments outside of Stephens County Courthouse from WikiMedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). It’s already back to school time, and while students in Louisiana and Oklahoma may notice that the Ten Commandments and Bible are now in their classrooms and curricula, religion has always been part of the structure of public schools in the…Read More| Canopy Forum
John Witte, Jr.’s Contributions to the Study of Sex, Marriage, and Family Law Helen M. Alvaré The following is an adapted excerpt from the chapter “John Witte, Jr. Contributions to the Study of Sex, Marriage, and Family Law” from the book, Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Reflecting and Building on the Work of John…Read More| Canopy Forum
Obeying Conscience: The Commands and Costs of Resisting the Law Jeffrey B. Hammond The following is an adapted excerpt from the chapter “Obeying Conscience: The Commands and Costs of Resisting the Law” from the book, Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Reflecting and Building on the Work of John Witte, Jr. (2024). Reprinted under Creative…Read More| Canopy Forum
Photo of Supreme Court of Pakistan from Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Pakistan’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Act (XX of 2017) represents a significant step towards increasing female participation within the legal sphere. With specific provisions on female representation in court-mandated mediation and ADR centers, this Act moves Pakistan towards a more inclusive and equitable legal…Read More| Canopy Forum
Photo of Aleksandr Dugin on Wikimedia by Mahdieh Gaforian (CC BY-SA 4.0). Alexandr Dugin is a Russian ultranationalist political theorist and television commentator. He currently serves as the head of the newly established “Ivan Ilyin Higher School of Politics” (HSP) at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) in Moscow. In recent years, he has been…Read More| Canopy Forum
John Witte, Jr. On Christianity and LawRafael Domingo The following is an adapted excerpt from the chapter “John Witte, Jr. On Christianity and Law” from the book, Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Reflecting and Building on the Work of John Witte, Jr. (2024). Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC-BY-NC). This is part…Read More| Canopy Forum
Witte’s Contribution on Human Rights and Religious FreedomNicholas Wolterstorff The following is an adapted excerpt from the chapter “Witte’s Contribution on Human Rights and Religious Freedom” from the book, Faith in Law, Law in Faith: Reflecting and Building on the Work of John Witte, Jr. (2024). Reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (CC-BY-NC). This…Read More| Canopy Forum
