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Representing God: Christian Legal Activism in Contemporary England

Online ISBN:
9780691211619
Print ISBN:
9780691193632
Publisher:
Princeton University Press
Book

Representing God: Christian Legal Activism in Contemporary England

Méadhbh McIvor
Méadhbh McIvor
University of Oxford
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Published online:
20 May 2021
Published in print:
6 October 2020
Online ISBN:
9780691211619
Print ISBN:
9780691193632
Publisher:
Princeton University Press

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a growing number of Christians in England have gone to court to enforce their right to religious liberty. Funded by conservative lobby groups and influenced by the legal strategies of their American peers, these claimants — registrars who conscientiously object to performing the marriages of same-sex couples, say, or employees asking for exceptions to uniform policies that forbid visible crucifixes — highlight the uneasy truce between law and religion in a country that maintains an established Church but is wary of public displays of religious conviction. This book charts the changing place of public Christianity in England through the rise of Christian political activism and litigation. The book explores the ideas and contested reception of this ostensibly American-inspired legal rhetoric. It argues that legal challenges aimed at protecting “Christian values” ultimately jeopardize those values, as moralities woven into the fabric of English national life are filtered from their quotidian context and rebranded as the niche interests of a cultural minority. By framing certain moral practices as specifically Christian, these activists present their religious convictions as something increasingly set apart from broader English culture, thereby hastening the secularization they seek to counter. The book offers a unique look at how Christian politico-legal activism in England simultaneously responds to and constitutes the religious life of a nation.

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