Throughout the world today, freedom is often taken for granted. Yet freedom is the exception rather than the norm in human history. It is also the case that the institutions of freedom, and particular liberties such as political freedom, religious liberty, civil freedoms, and economic liberty in the West, were decisively shaped by Judaism and Christianity. Knowledge of these contribution, however, is dangerously absent from many public discussions of freedom, and its relationship to other important values, such as dignity and solidarity. How do we bring knowledge of these truths back into public discussion? What are the new threats to these forms of liberty in modern societies whose primary religious roots lie in Judaism and Christianity?
On September 9, 2015, Acton Institute and the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies will hold a day-long conference in Jerusalem – Judaism, Christianity, and the West: Building and Preserving the Institutions of Freedom – bringing together leading scholars from around the world to discuss the ways in which Judaism and Christianity has contributed to building the foundations of liberty, how Jews and Christians can today contribute to the protection of political, religious and economic freedom, and the ways in which they can assist in building institutional safeguards against populism and arbitrary government. This conference will take place at the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center.
This conference is the fourth in the five-part series One and Indivisible? The Relationship Between Religious and Economic Freedom.
