John Witte, Jr.
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  • Home
  • What's New
  • About
  • Photos
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Articles, Essays, Book Chapters & Book Reviews
  • Lectures
  • Interviews
  • Op-Eds
  • Cambridge Law and Christianity Series
  • Emory Studies in Law and Religion Series
  • Brill Research Perspectives on Law and Religion
John Witte, Jr.

Articles, Essays, Books Chapters and Book Reviews

Religion, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom​ (Historical, Comparative, and Contemporary Themes)

“Foreword,” to Alex Deagon, Christian Natural Law and Religious Freedom: A Foundation Based on Love, the True and the Good (London: Routledge, 2025), __

“Sacrificing Religious Freedom in Europe: Why the Pan-European Courts Need Douglas Laycock,” Journal of Law and Religion 40 (2025): __ (with Andrea Pin)

“Human Rights and Orthodox Christianity: Learning from our Differences,” Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought 2 (2025): __-__

“Faith in School: Balancing No Establishment and Free Exercise of Religion Guarantees in American Education,” Ecclesiastical Law Journal 26 (2024): 276-297​​

“The 14th Richard O’Sullivan Memorial Lecture: A New Great Awakening of Religious Freedom in America,” Law & Justice (2023): 119-137

“Un nuevo despertar de la libertad religiosa en Estados Unidos,” Ius Canonicum 67 (2024): 193-211

“Foreword,” to George Walters-Sleyon, The Rush for Black Diamonds, 2 vols. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2024)

“‘The Glorious Liberty of the Children of God’: Toward a Christian Defense of Human Rights,” Journal of Christian Thought 13 (2023): 42-49 (SSRN)

“Book Review of Russell Sandberg, Religion in Schools: Learning Lessons from Wales. Anthem Press, 2022,” Journal of Church & State 65 (2023): 474-475

“Biblical Foundations of Human Rights and Liberties,” Jahrbuch für biblische Theologie 37 (2023): 237-268 (with Eric Wang)

“Human Rights and Orthodox Christianity: Learning from our Differences,” in Norman Doe and Aetios Nikiforos, eds., Legal Thought and Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Addresses of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (London: Routledge, 2023), 59-68

“The New Fourth Era of American Religious Freedom,” Hastings Law Journal 74 (2023): 1813-1848 (with Eric Wang) (SSRN)

“The Blessings of Liberty,” Canopy Forum (Jan. 14, 2023)

“Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment,” Canopy Forum (June 6, 2022)
(with Joel A. Nichols and Richard W. Garnett)

“Religious Freedom in Religious Education,” CCCU Advance (Fall, 2022), 1-10 (SSRN)

“Back to the Sources! What's Clear and Not so Clear about the Original Intent of the First Amendment,” BYU Law Review 47 (2022): 1303-1383 (​SSRN)

“Introduction,” to John Witte, Jr., Joel A. Nichols, and Richard W. Garnett, Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 1-8

“Restoring the Value(s) of Religion in American Public Education,” in Stephen Pickard et al., eds., The Impact of Education on Character Formation, Ethical Education, and the Communication of Values in Late Modern Pluralistic Societies(Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH, 2022), 89-106

“Freedom and Order, Christianity, Human Rights, and Culture” [Interview by Zhi-Bin Xie], Jiandao: A Journal of Bible and Theology 56 (July, 2021): 113-30 (Chinese)

Review of Nigel Biggar, What's Wrong with Rights?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 10 (2021): 1-6 (SSRN)

“Slaughtering Religious Freedom at the Court of Justice of the European Union,” Canopy Forum (February 16, 2021) (with Andrea Pin) (​SSRN)

“Faith in Strasbourg and Luxembourg: The Fresh Rise of Religious Freedom Litigation in the Pan-European Courts,” Emory Law Journal 70 (2021): 587-661 (with Andrea Pin) (​SSRN)

“The Right of Freedom of Religion: An Historical Perspective from the West,” in Silvio Ferrari, et al., eds., Routledge Handbook on Freedom of Religion and Belief (London: Routledge, 2020), 9-24 (SSRN)

“Meet the New Boss of Religious Freedom: The New Cases in the Court of Justice of the European Union,” Texas International Law Review 55 (2020): 223-268 (with Andrea Pin) (SSRN)

“The Right to Self-Defense as the Grundnorm for Human Rights: A Response to David Little,” Canopy Forum (July 6, 2020) (SSRN)

“Historical Foundations and Enduring Fundamentals of American Religious Freedom,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 33 (2020): 156-167

“La libertad religiosa en Estados Unidos: Una perspectiva internacional,” Ius Humani, Revista de Derecho 8 (2019): 99-122

“Law and Religion in American Education,” in Michael D. Waggoner and Nathan C. Walker, eds., The Oxford Handbook on Religion and Education (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 229-43 (with Brian Kaufman) (SSRN)

“Is Religious Liberty Under Threat? Trans-Atlantic Perspectives,” Ecclesiastical Law Journal 20 (2018): 339-41 (SSRN)

“Foreword to Spanish Edition / Prefacio a la primera edición en español,” in John Witte, Jr. and Joel A. Nichols, La Libertad Religiosa en Estados Unidos: Historia de un experimento constitucional, trans. Nicolás Zambrana-Tévar (Madrid: Thomson Reuters Legal, 2018), 15-20 (​​​​​​​​SSRN)

“Teología y política de la libertad religiosa en Norteamérica: cuatro modelos procedentes de la época fundacional,” Revista Persona y Derecho 77 (2017): 371-401 (​SSRN)

“Law, Religion, and Human Rights in David Little’s Thought,” Journal of Law and Religion 32 (2017): 197-201 (​​SSRN)

“Calvinist Contributions to Freedom in Early Modern Europe,” in Timothy S. Shah and Allen D. Hertzke, eds., Christianity and Freedom: Volume 1: Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 210-234 (SSRN)

“National Report -- United States of America: Religious Law and Religious Courts as a Challenge to the State,” in Uwe Kischel, ed., Religiöse Recht und religiöse Gerichte als Herausforderung des Staates (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 83-111 (with Joel A. Nichols) (​SSRN)

“‘Come Now Let Us Reason Together': Restoring Religious Freedom in America and Abroad,” Notre Dame Law Review 92 (2016): 427-450 (with Joel A. Nichols) (​SSRN)

“Freedom, Persecution, and the Status of Christian Minorities,” in Lamin Sanneh and Michael J, McClymond, eds., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Christianity (Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016), 330-349 (with M. Christian Green) (​SSRN)

“David Little:  A Modern Calvinist Architect of Human Rights,” in Sumner B. Twiss, et al., eds., Religion and Public Policy:  Human Rights, Conflict and Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 3-23 (SSRN)

“​Christianity and Human Rights: Past Contributions and Future Challenges,” Journal of Law and Religion 30 (2015): 353-385 (with Justin J. Latterell) (​SSRN)

​"To Serve Right and to Fight Wrong: Why Religion, Human Rights, and Human Dignity Need Each Other,"  in Marta Cartabia and Andrea Simoncini, eds., Pope Benedict XVI’s Legal Speeches in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 106-122 (​SSRN)

Review of Paul Babie and Neville Rochow, eds., Freedom of Religion Under Bills of Rights, Ecclesiastical Law Journal 16 (2014): 101-102 (​SSRN)

“Religion,” in Dinah Shelton, ed., The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 10-31 (with M. Christian Green) (​SSRN)

“The Shifting Walls of Separation Between Church and State in the United States,” Percorsi costituzionali Costituzione e Religione 2/3 (2013): 133-148 (​SSRN)

“Introduction,” to T. Jeremy Gunn and John Witte, Jr., eds., No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 3-14 (​SSRN)

“Beyond the Separation Between Church and State,” Oasis 14 (2012): 73-78 (with Justin J. Latterell) (SSRN)

​“Introduction,” to John Witte, Jr. and M. Christian Green, eds., Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 3-24 (​SSRN)

“Lift High the Cross? Lautsi v. Italy in American Perspective,” Huffington Post (March 27, 2011) (SSRN)

​“American Religious Liberty in International Perspective,” in Derek Davis, ed., The Oxford Handbook on Church-State Relations in America (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 404-422 (​SSRN)

"Contrasting the New European and American Cases on Religious Symbols on Government Property,” Emory International Law Review 25 (2011): 5-56 (with Nina-Louisa Arold) (​SSRN)

“Keeping the Commandments,” in Ecclesiastical Law Journal 11 (2009): 329-331 (​SSRN)

“Religious Freedom, Democracy, and International Human Rights,” Emory International Law Review 23 (2009): 583-608 (with M. Christian Green) (​SSRN)

“The Rights and Limits of Proselytism in the New Religious World Order,” in Thomas Banchoff, ed., Religious Pluralism, Globalization and World Politics (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 105-122 (SSRN)

“’Fairer Still the Woodlands’: Mapping the Free Exercise Forest,” Review of Kent Greenawalt, Religion and the Constitution 1: Free Exercise and Fairness (2006), Constitutional Commentary 24 (2008): 551-565 (​SSRN)

“Introduction: The Foundations and Frontiers of Religious Liberty,” Emory International Law Review 21 (2007): 1-12 (​SSRN)

“Foreword,” to Natan Lerner, Religion, Secular Beliefs, and Human Rights: 25 Years After the 1981 Declaration (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2006), ix-xv (​SSRN)

“Facts and Fictions About the History of Separation of Church and State,” Journal of Church and State 48 (2006): 15-46 (​SSRN)

“Intelligent Design v. Evolution: Both Right and Left Misguided in Fight,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution (December 23, 2005): A15 (​SSRN)

“From Establishment to Freedom of Public Religion,” Capital University Law Review 32 (2004): 499-518 (​SSRN)

“That Serpentine Wall of Separation,” Michigan Law Review 101 (2003): 1869-1905 (​SSRN)

“A Dickensian Era of Religious Rights: An Update on Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective,” William & Mary Law Review 42 (2001): 707-770 (​SSRN)

“A Primer on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism,” in Cumberland Law Review 31 (2001): 619-630 (​SSRN)

“Introduction,” to John Witte, Jr. and Michael Bourdeaux, eds., Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), 1-27 (​SSRN)

“Preface,” to John Witte, Jr. and Richard C. Martin, eds., Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999), xi-xviii

“Introduction,” to “Symposium: Pluralism, Proselytism, and Nationalism in Eastern Europe,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 36 (Winter/Spring 1999): 1-6

"Oracle of Religious Liberty -- Review of John T. Noonan, Jr., The Lustre of the Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom (1998),” Green Bag 3, 2d ser. (1999): 327-332 (​SSRN)

“Bürgerrecht und Religion III. Nordamerika,” Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4. Aufl. (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1998; repr. 2007) (​SSRN)

“​Law, Religion and Human Rights: A Historical Protestant Perspective,” Annual of the American Society of Christian Ethics 26 (1998): 257-262 (​SSRN)

“Introduction -- Soul Wars: The Problem and Promise of Proselytism in Russia,” Emory International Law Review 12 (1998): 1-42 (​SSRN)

“Review of Jesse Choper, Securing Religious Liberty: Principles for Judicial Interpretation of the Religion Clauses (1995),” The Christian Century 113 (1996): 521-522 (SSRN)

“Introduction,” to John Witte, Jr. and Johan D. van der Vyver, eds., Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives (Dordrecht/London/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996), xvii-xxxv (SSRN)

“Law, Religion, and Human Rights,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 28 (1996): 1-31 (​SSRN)

“The Church's Legal Challenges in the Twenty-First Century,” in Andrew R. Cecil, ed., The Moral Challenges of the Twenty First Century (Austin/Dallas: University of Texas Press, 1996), 107-143 (​SSRN)

“The Essential Rights and Liberties of Religion in the American Constitutional Experiment,” Notre Dame Law Review 71 (1996): 371-445 (​SSRN)

“Introductory Remarks: The State of Religious Human Rights in the World Today:
A Conference Report with Book Excerpts
,
” Emory International Law Review 10 (1996): 52-62 (​​​​​​​​SSRN)

“The Future of Religious Liberty in Russia: Report of the De Burght Conference on Pending Russian Legislation Restricting Religious Liberty,” Emory International Law Review 8 (1994): 1-66 (with W. Cole Durham, Jr., Pieter van Dijk, and Lauren B. Homer) (​SSRN)

“​The Integration of Religious Liberty,” Michigan Law Review 90 (1992): 1363-1383 (SSRN)

“Whether Piety or Charity: Classification Issues in the Law Governing Tax Exemption of Churches,” in C. Cherry and R. Sherill, eds., Religion and the Independent Sector in America (Atlanta: American Academy of Religion Series/Scholars Press, 1992), 135-165 (​SSRN)

“Tax Exemption of Church Property: Historical Anomaly or Valid Constitutional Practice?” Southern California Law Review 64 (1991): 363-415 ​(​SSRN)

Review of Derek Davis, Original Intent: Chief Justice Rehnquist and the Course of American Church-State Relations (1991), The Christian Century 109 (1992): 248-252

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