How Professor Durham Built Law and Religion—One Class at a Time

The essay elaborates on W. Cole Durham, Jr.’s academic work in the context of the democratization in Central and Eastern Europe countries started (and yet not finished) after the collapse of the Soviet system. Durham’s deep interest in ambiguous interplays of religion, constitutional identity, and politics in the region provided an important part of the empirical basis of his “loop” concept—a powerful theoretical explanation of links between religious freedom and religious identification of the state. Beyond that Durham’s tireless efforts to educate on and advocate for religious freedom have helped to build law and religion as an academic field in the region.