The Global Public Square: Religious Freedom and the Making of a World Safe for Diversity

The author, social critic, and Christian apologist has written a book about freedom of religion, which he believes is in grave danger due to Islamic extremists and aggressive atheists. Of the two, Guinness is far more concerned with what he sees as a “belligerent intolerance” toward religion among liberal secularists and atheists. He proposes the term “soul freedom” to combat this movement. The term is a riff on “soul liberty,” Roger Williams’s turn of phrase, and Guinness uses it to propound his belief that governments should allow freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Much of this book is a paean to Western Enlightenment ideas and a lament that these ideals are now being challenged. Guinness betrays his political leanings in calling Obama’s healthcare law requiring some employers to cover contraception a “deliberate, flagrant violation of freedom of conscience.” Mixing history, public policy, and current affairs, this thesis may have been more cogently articulated in a magazine-length article, but evangelicals and others may appreciate its passionate plea for a civil public square that privileges Judeo-Christian adherents and Western constitutional law. (Sept.)