John Witte, Jr. is Woodruff University Professor, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. A world-class scholar of legal history, human rights, and law and religion, he has published 300 articles and forty books. Recent works include The Western Case for the Monogamy Over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015), Christianity and Family Law (Cambridge, 2017), and Church, State, and Family (Cambridge, 2021).

'The product of a lifetime's scholarship, unequaled in excellence, in the vital field of religion and human rights, Professor Witte's juggernaut of a volume is freighted with comprehensive narrative, authoritative commentary and original insights. It traces the definitive history of religious liberty in the common law world, and analyses its significance today deploying encyclopaedic knowledge with dextrous aplomb. Thirty years in gestation, Witte's magnum opus towers over other literature and will be an enduring landmark for a generation.' Mark Hill QC, Cardiff University

• Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Christian contributions to the development of rights and liberties in the Western legal tradition; 2. Magna Cartas old and new: rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law; 3. Natural law and natural rights in the early Protestant tradition; 4. 'A most mild and equitable establishment of religion': religious freedom in Massachusetts, 1780–1833; 5. Historical foundations and enduring fundamentals of American religious freedom; 6. Balancing the guarantees of no establishment and free exercise of religion in American education; 7. Tax exemption of religious property: historical anomaly or valid constitutional practice? 8. Faith in Strasbourg? Religious freedom in the European Court of Human Rights; 9. Meet the new boss of religious freedom: the new cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union; Concluding reflections: toward a Christian defense of human rights and religious freedom today; Index.

John Witte, Jr. is Woodruff University Professor, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. A world-class scholar of legal history, human rights, and law and religion, he has published 300 articles and forty books. Recent works include The Western Case for the Monogamy Over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015), Christianity and Family Law (Cambridge, 2017), and Church, State, and Family (Cambridge, 2021).

'The product of a lifetime's scholarship, unequaled in excellence, in the vital field of religion and human rights, Professor Witte's juggernaut of a volume is freighted with comprehensive narrative, authoritative commentary and original insights. It traces the definitive history of religious liberty in the common law world, and analyses its significance today deploying encyclopaedic knowledge with dextrous aplomb. Thirty years in gestation, Witte's magnum opus towers over other literature and will be an enduring landmark for a generation.' Mark Hill QC, Cardiff University

• Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Christian contributions to the development of rights and liberties in the Western legal tradition; 2. Magna Cartas old and new: rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law; 3. Natural law and natural rights in the early Protestant tradition; 4. 'A most mild and equitable establishment of religion': religious freedom in Massachusetts, 1780–1833; 5. Historical foundations and enduring fundamentals of American religious freedom; 6. Balancing the guarantees of no establishment and free exercise of religion in American education; 7. Tax exemption of religious property: historical anomaly or valid constitutional practice? 8. Faith in Strasbourg? Religious freedom in the European Court of Human Rights; 9. Meet the new boss of religious freedom: the new cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union; Concluding reflections: toward a Christian defense of human rights and religious freedom today; Index.

John Witte, Jr. is Woodruff University Professor, McDonald Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. A world-class scholar of legal history, human rights, and law and religion, he has published 300 articles and forty books. Recent works include The Western Case for the Monogamy Over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015), Christianity and Family Law (Cambridge, 2017), and Church, State, and Family (Cambridge, 2021).

'The product of a lifetime's scholarship, unequaled in excellence, in the vital field of religion and human rights, Professor Witte's juggernaut of a volume is freighted with comprehensive narrative, authoritative commentary and original insights. It traces the definitive history of religious liberty in the common law world, and analyses its significance today deploying encyclopaedic knowledge with dextrous aplomb. Thirty years in gestation, Witte's magnum opus towers over other literature and will be an enduring landmark for a generation.' Mark Hill QC, Cardiff University

• Preface and Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Christian contributions to the development of rights and liberties in the Western legal tradition; 2. Magna Cartas old and new: rights and liberties in the Anglo-American common law; 3. Natural law and natural rights in the early Protestant tradition; 4. 'A most mild and equitable establishment of religion': religious freedom in Massachusetts, 1780–1833; 5. Historical foundations and enduring fundamentals of American religious freedom; 6. Balancing the guarantees of no establishment and free exercise of religion in American education; 7. Tax exemption of religious property: historical anomaly or valid constitutional practice? 8. Faith in Strasbourg? Religious freedom in the European Court of Human Rights; 9. Meet the new boss of religious freedom: the new cases of the Court of Justice of the European Union; Concluding reflections: toward a Christian defense of human rights and religious freedom today; Index.