These two books represent complementary views of current academic thinking regarding the nature of the liberal state and its interaction with religion and religious groups from both sides of the Atlantic. They set in context the contemporary discourse about the resurgence of the role and claims made by religions in the public sphere. The essays are written by eminent researchers in the field of law and religion, and demonstrate a wide range of viewpoints both on the theoretical framework of the liberal state and on the challenges in balancing justifiable regulation of religions and religious groups within the protection of freedom of thought, conscience and belief, also recognising the potential for conflict with protections enshrined in law for minority groups. There is specific focus on the tensions inherent in some of these areas in the early part of the twenty-first century, particularly in the realm of discrimination laws and the difficulty in preserving state neutrality. The essays concentrate on recent developments in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, but with wider surveys from other liberal democracies, along with the contextualisation of the nature of freedom of religion in movements such as globalisation, particularly through Western involvement abroad.

Religion in a Liberal State seeks to set the modern debate within the specific traditions of liberalism and the liberal state. It emphasises especially the challenges which liberalism and the concept of the liberal state face in the light of more overt and aggressive expressions of religion. In doing so it presents a variety of opinions about what is actually meant by a liberal state and how this relates to concepts of secularism. Discussion is undertaken of the often-expressed linear and organic view that religion and religious groups are declining in their influence within an increasing tide of secularisation in both the public and the private sphere. In this respect liberalism might be regarded as ‘privatising’ religious belief and practice. Until the latter part of the twentieth century it might have been argued that this was a relatively effective solution, drawing the very important distinction between a belief and the manifestation of that belief, particularly through religious practice and preaching.

Lord Plant of Highfield, a Labour peer and Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Philosophy at King's College London, as well as Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, leads the analysis with a chapter giving an overview of the main issues, notably the tensions which have come to the fore in recent years in a number of Western liberal states. He frames his study within the context not only of normative jurisprudence but also (and arguably more importantly) of these current political controversies. They include the French law prohibiting Muslim women from wearing the veil in public spaces, the role of the United Kingdom Equality Act 2010 in creating controversy around recruitment by religious organisations, Roman Catholic adoption agencies closing rather than being forced to place children with gay and lesbian couples, the role of religious symbols in public and private spaces, and the response of the churches, particularly from leading churchmen such as Pope Benedict XVI and a former Archbishop of Canterbury. Lord Plant argues that, within this context, we can perceive a fundamental shift in approach from ethos to the use of rules in maintaining liberal democracy.

Professor Ian Leigh takes the analysis forward to the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the concept of religious neutrality – that is, the extent to which the state should maintain neutrality in matters of religion. This essay highlights the difficulties inherent in maintaining legal neutrality and the contrast between this and the idea of a ‘secular state’, the former being preferable to the latter as the latter suffers from claims about its own neutrality. In his introduction Leigh begins by recognising that there is no reference to neutrality within Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights or Article 2 of the First Protocol (respect for parents' religious and philosophical convictions) and that is it only implicit in Article 14 of the Convention (prohibiting discrimination on, among other grounds, that of religion). He welcomes the greater sensitivity which the European Court of Human Rights has demonstrated in the case of Lautsi v Italy to questions of religious and philosophical delicacy, effectively the recognition of the criticism of a model of jurisprudence requiring strict separation of religion and the state, as essentially ‘Convention-sponsored imposition … of secularism in the name of neutrality’ (p 62). In this respect comparison may be drawn with the United States of America and the problems to which its model of relations between religion and the state gives rise, the subject of much of the second book.

There is an excellent chapter from Professor Maleiha Malik of King's College London, looking at the tension between certain religious beliefs and the protections afforded to minority rights, especially in respect of minority sexualities. The author acknowledges the very real problem that the new equality laws present to those who have conscientious objections to same-sex civil partnerships and now marriage, in particular how to manage an ethical objection to ministering in this context when someone is employed in the public sphere. She posits that some issues may be more appropriately and effectively managed within the organisations concerned, rather than through recourse to the law. This is probably the most contentious area in respect of changes which have been made in the formal regulation of religion. It presents almost irreconcilable conflicts between the legitimate rights of sexual minorities not to face discrimination in the provision of goods and services and the moral objections which traditional religious groups have towards homosexuality. It is a point which is explored elsewhere in the volume in regard to characteristics which are inherent and unchangeable in respect of sexual identities and those which are arguably changeable – a matter of choice such as an individual's religious identity – although such a liberal response does not perhaps reflect the more complex nature of religious identity and membership of religious groups which can be an integral part of an individual's own identity. This is an issue explored in the second book with regard to coercive practices by religious groups in the United States.

Professor Linda Woodhead contributes a very interesting and engaging chapter about the origins of liberalism within the Christian tradition in the United Kingdom. She frames her discussion around the assumption that there is a conflict between liberal democracy and illiberal religious groups. Her essay is much more historically focused than the others and this offers an interesting contrast to the more theoretically based considerations. She argues strongly that both religious and secular viewpoints can be either liberal or illiberal and that there is some benefit from the tension which exists between the two: namely, that it is the clash of ideas inherent within the two viewpoints which allows for the progress and accountability between them to be maintained. Woodhead examines the incidences of the relationship between established churches and the state in the United Kingdom, which are arguably not given as much prominence in some of the other contributions. She highlights the extent to which these churches, and other churches and religious groups, have made significant contributions to developing a liberal state within their tradition of Christianity, and the continuing dialogue which is useful in preserving freedom within a democracy between the state, secular liberals and religious liberals.

Derek McGhee examines the nature of moderate secularism, the concept of a ‘post-secular’ society explored from various doctrinal perspectives, and addresses the central question of the extent to which religious identities and arguments are being included in public political culture and the responses that ‘believers’ can have to this phenomenon. There is consideration by Veit Bader of the excluded, included or foundational nature of religions in liberal democratic states. He looks at the role of religions in liberal-democratic states and the importance of their engagement in public and political debates, while counselling against the idea that only religion, or one religion in particular, can further these goals. Justificatory secularism is the focus of the chapter by Cécile Laborde, in which it is argued that secularism is essential to liberal legitimacy and democratic deliberation, and that it is compatible with the recognition of religion even in a prominent place in society. John Milbank looks at the idea of mediating reason and religion today, detailing the philosophical approaches to religion from a variety of philosophers. The book concludes with John Perry's consideration of Christian eloquence and what he calls Johannine liberalism, the latter derived from the philosophy of John Locke and John Rawls.

The collection of essays edited by Professor Gerard V Bradley examines similar issues, but this time in the context of the United States of America. In the opening chapters the heritage of the constitutional framework of the United States is scrutinised by Bradley and Professor Steven D Smith, in particular the non-establishment of religion clause. The historical context of this is surveyed by looking at the way in which religious groups have altered since the foundation of the Republic from a relatively narrow group of dissenting sects, evolving to more unusual and diverse religions. There is very interesting discussion of which religions were envisaged by the Founders as enjoying protection. Thus, the book examines the early problems which religious diversity presented in a liberal state, and how this currently relates to the representation of Christianity in American public life. It is a very different and a much more historical study than the first volume.

Professor Smith's essay, which opens the collection, gives a fascinating survey of the proper function and scope of the establishment clause. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries this clause has often been regarded as a protection from the encroachment of religion on the state, to keep the ethos and outlook of the United States government as secular or liberal. Instead, Smith locates it within a tradition going back to Thomas Jefferson, which sees it as erecting a wall of separation between Church and State. He sees it as responding to the problem of the Church by denying the national, federal government power over the Church. The essay gives a very interesting overview of the nature of the Church as a polity and some of the difficulties which this would present to nascent liberalism during the last three centuries. Smith concludes by putting this in the context of the implicit Protestant establishment in the United States and the extent to which the values of the Christian origins of the country still inform the ethos behind government. Professor Bradley then takes up these points to consider the proposition in Van Orden v Perry (2005) 545 US 677 that the framers of the Constitution of the United States understood the word ‘religion’ within the establishment clause to encompass only the various sects of Christianity. This is essentially regarded by Bradley as Proposition A. Proposition B is then stated to be the case that the founders of the Constitution regarded the United States as a ‘Christian Nation’.

Later contributions examine the role of coercion in relation to religious practices – the extent to which United States' citizens may have their freedom supported by the way in which certain arrangements are worked out between Church and State. The final section discusses, in particular, the problem that is faced in the moral responsibilities of the United States in promoting religious liberty abroad. One contribution, by Daniel Philpott, looks at the theoretical and evidentiary foundations of such a responsibility; the other, by Thomas Farr, examines the nature of international religious freedom, perhaps a problematic term in its own right, and the moral responsibility which flows from some of these concepts.

Christopher Wolfe and Christopher Tollefson consider the ways in which the traditional right to conscientious objection has been re-imagined in a new context. Wolfe examines the questions of when the civil law should grant religious believers exemptions from civil law and how such occasions should be understood, as concessions to the opaque demands of religious practices/beliefs. In this sense there is a contrast with the first book reviewed, which looked at some of these issues from a British and European perspective. However, some of the same problems arise in areas such as the requirements of military service, being photographed for security reasons and the ability to use freedom of religion to violate secular anti-discrimination laws. The solution in the last case is interesting, introducing what is described as the principle of ‘forbearance’.

These volumes together present an excellent overview of the nature of the liberal state and its relationship with the protection of religious liberty, as well as the problems which religions both present and suffer in an age which is beginning to be characterised by more assertive religious involvement in the public sphere than the second half of the last century. The books represent religious experiences in very different nations and regions, especially in a European context where nation-states have embraced a plurality of responses to Church–State relations and the tensions to which these give rise.