Browse the Free Library
Explore public books, articles, reports, recordings, and learning resources on freedom of religion or belief.
Free Religion: An American Faith
Stow Persons
A historical study of free religion in the United States, first published by Yale University Press in 1947. Stow Persons traces the movement's emergence…
The Religion of Humanity
Octavius Brooks Frothingham
A systematic statement of liberal and naturalistic religion centred on humanity, moral development, and the authority of conscience. Octavius Brooks Frothingham reconsiders God, the…
The Free Religious Association: Its Twenty-Five Years and Their Meaning
William J. Potter
The official 1892 twenty-fifth-anniversary pamphlet of the Free Religious Association of America. It includes a report of the annual convention and William J. Potter's…
The Free Religion Movement
David M. Robinson
A scholarly overview of the Free Religious Association and the nineteenth-century American free religion movement. Robinson traces its Transcendentalist and Unitarian origins, its emphasis…
I.A.R.F. Quarterly and News Digest
The official quarterly journal of the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom.This record covers issues bearing the I.A.R.F. Quarterly and News Digest…
News Digest of the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom
The official quarterly news journal of the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom, published from The Hague. Contemporary covers and references also…
IARF Information Service
The official information service of the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom (later the International Association for Religious Freedom), published from The…
The Way Out of Agnosticism; or, The Philosophy of Free Religion
Francis Ellingwood Abbot
Based on forty-one lectures delivered in Harvard University's Advanced Course, Philosophy 13, in 1888, this work argues for a constructive religious liberalism grounded in…
Human Rights Education with Adivasi Women in Kerala
International Association for Religious Freedom, Religious Freedom Youth Network (RFYN)
This short documentary records an IARF human-rights education programme with Adivasi women in Kerala, India. Participants describe discrimination experienced in everyday life, including exclusion…
C. N. N. Raju on the History of IARF in India
International Association for Religious Freedom, C.N.N. Raju
C. N. N. Raju gives a concise first-person account of the growth of IARF in India. Beginning with his involvement in the Brahmo Samaj,…
Human Rights Awareness in Maasai Country, Kenya
International Association for Religious Freedom, Religious Freedom Youth Network (RFYN)
This field recording documents a human-rights awareness programme held on 12 March 2013 in Enarau, a rural community in Kajiado district in Maasai country…
Bringing Rights Awareness into India through Youth: IARF Human Rights Education
International Association for Religious Freedom, Religious Freedom Youth Network (RFYN), Bro. Albert Xaviour
Bro. Albert Xaviour describes how IARF’s human-rights education work helped young adults in India move from learning about rights to carrying practical awareness into…
Religion and Conflict Prevention: IARF EME Conference 2016 at a Glance
International Association for Religious Freedom
A short retrospective film from the 2016 conference of IARF’s Europe and Middle East Region, held in Tetovo, North Macedonia, 22–25 August 2016 under…
Richard Boeke Receives the IARF Distinguished Leadership Award
International Association for Religious Freedom, Richard Boeke
At the 35th IARF World Congress in Washington, DC, Rev. Dr. Richard Boeke receives the Distinguished Leadership Award in recognition of a lifetime of…
Indigenous Access to Sacred Sites on Private Land: IARF Oral Statement at the UN Human Rights Council
International Association for Religious Freedom
On 5 March 2026, the International Association for Religious Freedom delivered this oral statement during the Human Rights Council’s interactive dialogue with UN Special…
(Japanese, 日本語) 36th IARF Congress, Day 3: The Dangers Without, the Dangers Within
International Association for Religious Freedom, Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt
Rosemary Bray McNatt牧師による「The Dangers Without, The Dangers Within」の日本語版です。2023年の米国社会を背景に、和解がいつ必要で、いつまだ時期尚早なのかを問いかけます。アフリカ系米国人女性でありユニタリアン・ユニヴァーサリストの牧師としての経験から、自由主義宗教が守るべき自由は思想や信仰だけでなく、黒人、女性、LGBTQの人びとなどの身体的・政治的自由を含むべきだと論じます。黒人キリスト教に根付く赦しの伝統と「No justice, no peace」という訴えを対比し、被害が続いている段階で被害者に和解や赦しを求めることの危険を指摘します。講演では、当時の米国民主主義への脅威として、白人キリスト教ナショナリズム、Heritage FoundationのProject 2025／Mandate for Leadership、投票権、女性の身体的自己決定、LGBTQの権利、人種的不平等、気候危機などを取り上げます。McNattは、基本的権利への攻撃が続く状況では、まず抵抗、歴史の真実を語ること、そして記憶と希望の共同体を築くことが必要だと主張します。宗教共同体には、人びとが不正を認識し、互いを支え、将来の真の和解に向けて行動する場となる可能性があると結論づけます。
36th IARF Congress, Day 3: The Dangers Without, The Dangers Within, Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt
International Association for Religious Freedom, Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt
Speaking in 2023, Unitarian Universalist minister and seminary president Rosemary Bray McNatt asks when calls for reconciliation become premature in the face of continuing…
(Japanese, 日本語) 36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Peace Treaty for the Korean Peninsula, Dr. Esther Suter
International Association for Religious Freedom, Esther Suter
Esther Suter牧師による朝鮮半島の平和条約に関する講演の日本語版です。1953年の朝鮮戦争休戦協定から70年を迎えた2023年に、休戦状態を正式な平和条約へ移行するために何が必要かを考察します。南北分断は安全保障上の問題であるだけでなく、離散家族や世代間の記憶に関わる人間的課題でもあり、教会による平和運動や署名活動は、固定化された「敵」のイメージを問い直すための社会教育でもあると論じます。韓国キリスト教教会協議会、北朝鮮の朝鮮基督教連盟、世界教会協議会などによる交流、2018年の板門店宣言、その後の米朝外交を振り返りながら、平和条約と核軍縮を不可分の課題として扱います。一方的な非核化要求だけでは、相手が軍事的・核的脅威を感じ続ける限り持続的解決は難しいとして、対話、緊張緩和、信頼醸成、地域全体の核軍縮を進める必要性を訴えます。
36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Peace Treaty for the Korean Peninsula, Rev. Dr. Esther Suter
International Association for Religious Freedom, Esther Suter
Rev. Dr. Esther Suter marks the seventieth anniversary of the 1953 Korean Armistice by asking what would be required to replace the continuing state…
(Japanese, 日本語) 36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Reconciliation in North-East Asia, Prof. Kathy Matsui
International Association for Religious Freedom, Kathy Matsui
Kathy Matsui教授による北東アジアの和解と平和に関する講演の日本語版です。Matsuiは、和解を真実の直視、謝罪、赦し、共感、人権、そして繰り返し行われる対話から成る長期的な過程として説明します。日本と韓国をはじめ北東アジアに残る歴史的傷は、政治的宣言や圧力だけでは癒やせず、人びとが互いの歴史を学び、固定観念を関係性へと変えていく継続的な出会いが必要だと論じます。IALRWの韓国大会で日本側参加者が「アリラン」を歌い、言葉を超えた和解の瞬間が生まれた経験を紹介したうえで、IALRW、Religions for Peace Japan、NARPIなどによる平和教育の実践を取り上げます。ウクライナ、バルカン、アルメニア、ミンダナオ、日本の宗教教育機関での事例や、自身の大学での紛争解決、人権、軍縮、多文化、宗教間、ジェンダー、環境教育を紹介し、北東アジア共通の平和教育枠組みと、市民社会・宗教団体・教育者の協力を提唱します。
36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Reconciliation and Peace in North-East Asia, Prof. Kathy Matsui
International Association for Religious Freedom, Kathy Matsui
Peace educator Kathy Matsui presents reconciliation in North-East Asia as a long-term process of truth-telling, apology, forgiveness, empathy, human rights and repeated dialogue. Drawing…
(Japanese, 日本語) 36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Esther Suter on the IALRW
International Association for Religious Freedom, Esther Suter
Esther Suter牧師によるInternational Association of Liberal Religious Women（IALRW）の紹介の日本語版です。IALRWは1910年のIARFベルリン世界大会で女性の課題が初めて大会議題として取り上げられたことを背景に生まれ、1913年のパリ世界大会で正式に組織されました。SuterはHelen HerfordやMartha Everettなど初期の指導者に触れ、第一次世界大戦やその他の困難な時期を越えて組織が存続してきた歴史を紹介します。講演は、参政権など大きな成果を得た後も、なぜ女性の組織が必要なのかを問い直します。ジェンダーに基づく暴力、土地・財産権、賃金平等など、女性の人権をめぐる課題は今も残っています。同時にIALRWの特徴は、単なる権利擁護団体ではなく、異なる宗教伝統に属するリベラルな女性たちが友情を築き、平和と正義に取り組む場であることだとSuterは説明します。
36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Esther Suter on the International Association of Liberal Religious Women
International Association for Religious Freedom, Esther Suter
Rev. Dr. Esther Suter introduces the International Association of Liberal Religious Women (IALRW) through its history and continuing purpose. The organization emerged from the…
36th IARF Congress, Day 3: Faith-Based Encounters and Re-Humanizing the Other by Rabbi Bob Carroll
International Association for Religious Freedom, Bob Carroll
Rabbi Bob Carroll presents the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) as a model of grassroots peacebuilding in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Founded during the…
