Short Bio

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. His work examines the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, as well as the legal and civic practices that enable people to live together across deep differences. He is the author of Learning to Disagree, Confident Pluralism, and Liberty’s Refuge, and co-editor with Tim Keller of Uncommon Ground. Inazu is the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and is a senior fellow at Interfaith America, the Boniuk Institute, and the Trinity Forum. He holds a B.S.E. and J.D. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Long Bio

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarship and public writing explore the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, as well as broader questions of pluralism, legal and political theory, and the institutions and practices that sustain life across deep differences.

Inazu is the author of Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect (Zondervan, 2024), Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012). He is also the co-editor, with Tim Keller, of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020).

Inazu founded The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship. He is a senior fellow at Interfaith America, where he co-directs, with Eboo Patel, the Newbigin Fellows and Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy. He is also a senior fellow at the Boniuk Institute and the Trinity Forum.

Inazu holds a B.S.E. and J.D. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He clerked for Judge Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and served for four years as an associate general counsel with the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon.

He writes Some Assembly Required, a newsletter about law, religion, higher education, and the challenges of living together in a diverse society.

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