RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: AN INQUIRY

International Missionary Council, New York, 1945.  Hard cover, 604 pages including List of Publications Cited and Index.  Good; teal cloth with faded gilt lettering on sun faded spine; three corners worn to boards, spine ends worn with small tears to cloth; shelf wear with bits of board exposed on lower edges; a few small stains and age-spotting, some sun fading; binding sound.  Prior owner’s name and address on front paste-down; remainder of interior clean and unmarked with lightly tanned pages.  ‘The trend that marked the era of political liberalism, when religious freedom was regarded as an inalienable right possessed by all men, has come to a sudden and dramatic end in large and representative areas of the world.  Outside those parts of the world where democracy continues to be taken seriously, no individual can claim religious freedom as an inalienable right.  The public implications of his personal faith are determined for him in the name, and in accordance, with the interests, of some particular group – religious or political – which claims the right and has the power to control his destiny.  Concern over the situation thus created, which is an important part of the basic question of human rights, secular as well as religious, inspired the study the fruitage of which is presented in this book. (from Foreword by John A. MacKay)