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Principle, History, And Power: The Limits Of The First Amendment Religion Clauses, Stephen M. Feldman
Principle, History, And Power: The Limits Of The First Amendment Religion Clauses, Stephen M. Feldman
Stephen M. Feldman
This article addresses whether the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution prohibit the injection of religious values into political debate. I argue that Christianity hegemonically controls American society and culturally oppresses outgroup religions, particularly the prototypical minority religion of Judaism. I critically analyze how the constitutional principle of separation of church and state contributes to the current orientation of power within American society. I approach the problem of Christian social power from three perspectives: symbolic power, structural power, and the relationship between symbolic and structural power.
The Politics Of Postmodern Jurisprudence, Stephen M. Feldman
The Politics Of Postmodern Jurisprudence, Stephen M. Feldman
Stephen M. Feldman
Forms of postmodern interpretivism, including philosophical hermeneutics and deconstruction, assert that we are always and already interpreting. This assertion has provoked numerous scholarly attacks, many of which invoke standard modernist hobgoblins such as textual indeterminacy, solipsism, ethical relativism, and nihilism. From the modernist standpoint, postmodern jurisprudence is either conservative or apolitical because it lacks the foundations necessary for knowledge and critique. In this article, I argue that these modernist attacks not only are mistaken but that they also obscure the potentially radical political ramifications of postmodern interpretivism. Postmodern interpretivism does not lead to an infinite regress of interpretations that undermines …