Is it possible to define religion and enact laws regarding religious freedoms where there is no state-established religion? That question is the focus of UNC Charlotte’s 31st annual Loy Witherspoon Lecture in Religious Studies at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 2, in the Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.
Guest lecturer Winnifred Fallers Sullivan will present the free, public presentation “The Impossibility of Religious Freedom.”
Sullivan is professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University. In addition, she is an affiliate professor at the Maurer School of Law. Sullivan has published three books analyzing legal discourses about religion in the context of the religion clauses of the First Amendment and related legislation. Her latest work “Politics of Religious Freedom” is scheduled for publication in May.
According to Sullivan, “My training in the academic study of religion is in two fields, American religious history and the comparative study of religion. My research interest is primarily in understanding the phenomenology of the religion under the modern rule of law.”
Joanne Robinson, chair of the Department of Religious Studies, said she looks forward to Sullivan’s talk. “Faculty in the department suggested Sullivan as this year’s speaker after reading her work, particularly in the wake of the Hobby Lobby ruling in summer 2014. This lecture promises to deliver a thought-provoking and critical consideration of what Sullivan calls the ‘rotten core at the heart of all religious freedom laws.’”
The Loy H. Witherspoon Lecture in Religious Studies, the oldest and most prestigious endowed lecture series at UNC Charlotte, was established in 1984 to honor the distinguished career and service of its namesake. Witherspoon was the first chair of the University’s Department of Religious Studies, and currently, he is professor emeritus of philosophy and religion.
The Department of Religious Studies is part of the UNC Charlotte College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.