The growing presence in Western society of non-mainstream faiths and spiritual practices poses a dilemma for the law. Building on a thorough history of the legal regulation of fortune-telling laws in four countries, Faith or Fraud examines the impact of people who identify as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) on the future legal understanding of religious freedom. Unlike SBNR belief systems that can encompass multiple religions, philosophies, and folklore, traditional legal interpretations of “freedom of religion” are based on organized religion and are ultimately shown to have failed to evolve along with ideas about religion itself.

Jeremy Patrick's profile page

Jeremy Patrick is a lecturer in the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia, where he also convenes the law, religion, and heritage research program team. His work on religious freedom, the separation of church and state, blasphemous libel and similar topics can be found in journals such as the Journal of Law and Religion, the University of British Columbia Law Review, and the University of Queensland Law Journal.

As a detailed history of the debates over fortune-telling in four different countries, and as an argument for the expansion of religious freedom law to include this kind of practice, Faith or Fraud makes a valuable contribution to the field

Nova Religio

Faith or Fraud is a thought-provoking read which could provide the catalyst for much further work. It provides a wonderful opportunity to confront our attitudes towards 'new Age' faith and to modern manifestations of faith...All this is done in the context of tantalising glimpses of other topical issues around the transmission of legal ideas within the common law world.

Ecclesiastical Law Journal

Faith or Fraud is a valuable contribution to the study of legal responses to fortune-telling...A comprehensive survey of this nature has never been conducted, and this is both an insightful and full addition to current scholarship.

Saskatchewan Law Review