Cardinal Angelo Scola: Let's Not Forget God, a historical, philosophical and theological tour de force that spans more than 17 centuries

Religious Freedom From Constantine to Today

by John M. Grondelski

Religious freedom figures prominently in the news, from the release of Meriam Ibrahim, who faced execution in Sudan for converting to Christianity, to the Hobby Lobby victory, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a company with strong religious convictions could not be forced to pay for other people’s abortifacients, which it deemed death-dealing drugs and devices.

Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan, Italy, and a frequently named papal contender in 2013, spoke at length about religious freedom on the occasion of the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan, Constantine’s decree ending the persecution of the Church and granting religious freedom to everyone in the Roman Empire.

This book developed out of the speech. Cardinal Scola’s text is a historical, philosophical and theological tour de force that spans more than 17 centuries, from the last gasp of Roman religious repression under Diocletian to the question of whether a contemporary country that embraces religious freedom must also embrace what Father Richard Neuhaus called a “naked public square” in which no believers need apply.

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