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Money And Power In Religious Competition: A Critique Of The Religious Free Market, Jianlin Chen
Money And Power In Religious Competition: A Critique Of The Religious Free Market, Jianlin Chen
Jianlin Chen
Academics have frequently alluded to the normative value of the religious free market fostered by the twin legal guarantees of the free exercise of religion and the absence of state establishment of religion. This article challenges the idealized portrayal of a religion’s ‘flourish[ing] according to the zeal of its adherents and the appeal of its dogma’ and examines the dynamics of material wealth and political power in a religion’s success. This article suggests that controversial measures such as affirmative action for socio-economically disadvantaged religions and restrictions of religious involvement in politics are not necessarily incompatible with the religious free market.
Deconstructing The Religious Free Market, Jianlin Chen
Deconstructing The Religious Free Market, Jianlin Chen
Jianlin Chen
Scholars have frequently alluded to the normative value of the religious free market fostered by the twin legal guarantees of the free exercise of religion and the absence of state establishment of religion. But given that the desirable normative interpretations of these two clauses differ widely, the nature of the resulting market is inevitably dependent on one’s choice of these contested interpretations. Similarly, the “entitlement to free religious competition” depends on the definition of “religion.” The present article deconstructs the religious free market into its legal components and discusses critically how the different interpretations and combinations of these legal components …