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17 Res Publica 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/respub17 and id is 1 raw text is: Res Publica (2011) 17:1-6 DOI 10.1007/s11158-011-9139-1 Introduction: Religion and Freedom of Expression Peter Jones Published online: 26 January 2011 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Tensions between religion and freedom of expression have a long pedigree. Given the central place that religious faith has occupied in the history of humanity and given the special status humanity has ascribed to the sacred and the divine, it could hardly have been otherwise. Contemporary controversies concerning the relative claims of religion and free expression might therefore be seen as no more than the latest episodes in an argument that has been conducted for two or more millennia. But the history of that argument is a changing history and its present character differs from its past. While in some societies the shielding of religion from free expression continues to be defended as a means of maintaining truth and preventing its corruption, that form of defence has been largely abandoned in western societies. In those societies, religious diversity is now accepted as a legitimate state of affairs as well as a matter of fact, so that, at least in public argument, no denomination and no faith can claim protection simply in virtue of the truth of its beliefs. As the articles that make up this collection indicate, arguments about faith and free expression now pivot on different sorts of concern, such as the recognition due to people's identities, the prevention of offence, insult and hatred, and the maintenance of public order and social cohesion. Appeals to the truth and its promotion are now more likely to come from those who want religion to feel the full force of free expression. Arguments about the respective claims of religion and free expression are also now conducted in a world in which there is a large measure of 'unbelief', which encompasses a wide variety of positions from dogmatic atheism to mere failure to be engaged by religion. They take place too in a world in which we are used to distinguishing between the proper spheres of the religious and the secular. Against that background, it is easy to gain the impression that the battle lines in arguments P. Jones (E) School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NEl 7RU, UK e-mail: p.n.jones@ncl.ac.uk I Springer

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