Cambridge University Press Releases Dr. Marian Simion’s Religion and Public Policy
May 2015
Cambridge University Press has released Religion and Public Policy: Human Rights, Conflict, and Ethics, a book co-edited by Dr. Marian Simion together with Sumner B. Twiss and Rodney L. Petersen. Featuring a group of distinguished contributors, including Bryan Hehir, Scott Appleby, John Witte, Jr., Abdulaziz Sachedina, and the CNN political commentator and former presidential advisor David Gergen, this volume is a multifaceted and original exploration of the status and justification of human rights; of the meaning and significance of religious liberty; how the comparative study of religious ethics ought to proceed; the nature, limits, and future development of just war thinking; the role of religion and human rights in conflict resolution, diplomacy, and peace-building; and the tensions raised by religious involvement in public policy and state institutional practices.
Taken collectively, the chapters articulate a vision for achieving a liberal peace and a just society firmly grounded in respect for human rights, while working in tandem with the constructive roles that religious ideas, leaders, and institutions can play even amid cultural difference.
This volume was published as a festschrift in honor of David Little, who is retired Professor of the Practice of Religion, Ethnicity, and International Conflict at Harvard Divinity School, and Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
The volume also contains a chapter titled “War and the Right to Life: Orthodox Christian Perspectives,” which, in a nuanced manner, articulates the Orthodox thinking on the Just War theory. This chapter is authored by Dr. Marian Simion, Adjunct Assistant Professor and the current Administrator of the Religious Studies program at Hellenic College. According to Dr. Simion, “working on this book has been a gratifying labor of love and respect for one of my most influential teachers and mentors I had at Harvard University. I feel honored and humbled by being in the company of such august colleagues, whose names and work has been both inspiring and formative for my scholarly growth.”
Dr. Marian Simion is an alumnus of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and holds a PhD in Public and International Affairs from Northeastern University in Boston, where his academic advisor was Governor Michael S. Dukakis. He is a post-doctoral fellow and field education supervisor at Harvard Divinity School, and in the past he taught peace ethics at Boston College and government at Harvard University.
