Thinking critically about (non-)religion: moving beyond religious freedom

Abstract

I read Beyond Religious Freedom with great anticipation and high expectations. It did not disappoint. Almost every page of my copy of the book has at least one mark up, star, exclamation point, and notation of a quotable quote. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s remarkable book takes on the formidable machine of the project of religious freedom and does so persuasively. The basic argument of her book is that religion is too unstable a category to be the basis for the massive global intervention scheme that is operating under the framework of “religious freedom”. Hurd does not, however, tackle this from the perspective that religion is a non-existent phenomenon or a category of no conceptual or theoretical value. Rather, she draws on examples from around the globe to illustrate the limited value of characterizing complex situations as being “about religion”. Hurd’s work can be contextualized in a broader initiative that seeks to offset the relatively uncritical approach to religion that has dominated the social sciences during the past several decades. She cogently argues that the complexity of many conflicts characterized as being about religion must be deconstructed and understood as being situated in complex historical, economic, social, and cultural processes that cannot and should not be reduced to religion. Hurd further articulates the harm done when this too easy categorization is deployed to frame international action.