A Sociology of Religious Freedom

In recent years, the relevance of religious freedom has spread well beyond academia, becoming a reference point for international relations, multi-level policy development, as well as interfaith negotiations. Meanwhile, scholarship on religious freedom has flourished on the boundaries of sociology, law, comparative politics, history, and theology. This book presents a systematic sociological analysis of religious freedom, bringing together classical sociological theories and empirical perspectives developed during the last three decades. It addresses three major questions involved in any sociology of religious freedom. First: considering its complex and controversial nature, how can religious freedom be defined? Second: what are the recurrent sociological conditions and relevant social perceptions that will foster an understanding of religious freedom in varying political, legal, and socioreligious contexts? And third, what are the mechanisms of social implementation of religious freedom that contribute to making it a fundamental value in a society? Olga Breskaya, Giuseppe Giordan, and James T. Richardson suggest that a sociological definition of religious freedom requires us to take into account historical, philosophical, legal, religious, and political considerations of a given society-and that the social dimensions of religious freedom are as important as the legal ones.

Olga Breskaya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at the University of Padova. She co-edited the volumes Religious Freedom: Thinking Sociologically (2023) and Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches (2021).

Giuseppe Giordan is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and Applied Psychology at the University of Padova. He co-edited the volumes Religion Between Governance and Freedoms (2024), and Religious Pluralism: Framing Religious Diversity in the Contemporary World (2014), among others, and co-authored Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity (2018).

James T. Richardson is Emeritus Foundation Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, and served as Director of the Graduate Program for Trial Judges for 30 years at the University of Nevada, co-sponsored by the National Judicial College. He has presented lectures on the social control of new religious movements in over 30 countries. He has published over 300 articles and book chapters and has written or edited over a dozen books.