Religious Freedom and Human Flourishing

IFWE SELECTS HALL TO JOIN TEMPLETON PROJECT ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE) is pleased to announce that Mark David Hall has been selected to join the “Moral Foundations of Freedom and Human Flourishing” book project, an IFWE initiative that is funded in part by the John Templeton Foundation. As one of thirteen contributing scholars, Hall will provide a chapter to a book that will explore the biblical roots and history of religious freedom and how Christians can become more engaged in preserving it, not just for Christians but for people of all faiths. The book will also explore the relationship between religious freedom, economic freedom, and political freedom. It is scheduled for release in the fall of 2019 by Abilene Christian University Press.

Mark David Hall is Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics and faculty fellow in the William Penn Honors Program at George Fox University. He is also associated faculty at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University and a Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. Mark has written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books, including Great Christian Jurists in American History (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); Faith and the Founders of the American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2014); The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009); The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding (Liberty Fund Press, 2009). His next book, tentatively titled America Had a Christian Founding: And Why This Benefits Us All, will be published by Thomas Nelson in 2019.

Hall’s contribution to the IFWE book on religious freedom will target the next generation through Christian colleges and universities, as well as current thought leaders and policy makers.

IFWE executive director Hugh Whelchel indicated that more educational material and marketing will be needed to help the IFWE project reach a larger audience of Christians in schools, churches, and in the marketplace. “Please keep this religious freedom project in prayer and consider joining us in this effort financially. Our prayer is that Christians would grasp the biblical roots of religious freedom and see how religious freedom is a prerequisite for human flourishing; where it doesn’t exist or is threatened, economic and political progress and freedoms have difficulty taking root.”

Please prayerfully consider making an end-of-year contribution toward the work of IFWE and this religious freedom project today.