The Political Origins of Religious Liberty

Anthony Gill is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles and holds an Honors BA degree from Marquette University.

• 1. Introduction: of liberty, laws, religion, and regulation; 2. The political origins of religious liberty; 3. Colonial British America; 4. Mexico and Latin America; 5. The Eastern Bloc and the Baltics (with Cheryl Zilinskas); 6. We gather together: the consequences of religious liberty.

'Gill arrives at … conclusions through a rich and rigorous comparative analysis of three historical cases: colonial and early postcolonial America, Latin America, and post-Communist Eastern Europe and Russia … his comparative use of analytic narrative … is admirably focused, brisk, and readable, in part because it is organised around the systematic testing of eleven propositions and sub-propositions … Gill deserves credit for not overstating his case: he is careful to acknowledge that ideas also play a role in determining the level and type of government restrictions on religion, and he is careful also to emphasize that his book's scope … is limited to a detailed examination of political origins of religious freedom, thus allowing that religious freedom derives from non-political sources as well. … The Political Origins of Religious Liberty is an exciting beginning … launching a theory that promises to stimulate useful new research on a wide range of historical and contemporary cases of religious liberty and its absence.' The Review of Politics