LAWS 2185
Religion Clause Controversies: Past, Present, and Future · 3 instructors on record · 5 sections
That is the class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it. Who taught it, and how each of them scored, is the board below — that is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between.
Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.
Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.
Law and religion are fundamental organizing principles across societies, while work is a basic human activity that operates as our chief claim on status and resources. In a multicultural society based on liberal principles, how employers, the law, and society handle religion in the workplace has become a fundamental and ongoing problem. In this comparative seminar, we will investigate how U.S. law tries to accommodate religious belief and practice in the workplace; problems employers face in accommodation claims; the impact of the law on religious minorities, among other issues. Our investigation will include an examination of how European Union law and German law approach such questions. This provides an opportunity to deepen knowledge of U.S. law by studying it in contrast, while providing students an orientation to how two key foreign systems approach like issues. The seminar will include presentations and discussion by leading European scholars. Students will be expected to develop and complete a substantial writing project on a topic of their choosing in the field of law and religion.
Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them.
| Rank | Instructor | Overall | Workload | Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M Cathleen KavenyDarald and Juliet Libby Professor · Theology | 923 records | 78th | 69th |
| 2 | Nathaniel RomanoLaw Provisional | 911 record | 78th | 31st |
| 3 | Thomas KohlerConcurrent Professor of Law and Philosophy · Philosophy Provisional | 871 record | — | 64th |
How this board is orderedPositions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.
Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Overall is the instructor's blended score for THIS class only, and its one contributing source is Boston College's evaluations for the sections in the row's record count — nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Workload and Challenge are RANKS against every class we hold, not scores: BC's questions all sit near the top of the 1-5 scale, so a raw number would put almost every row in the high eighties and tell you nothing. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item, which students answer positively about courses that stretched them — it is not a measure of difficulty or grading. Neither column is ever marked better or worse. 2 of 3 rows are marked provisional: fewer than 3 records stand behind the number. That is thin evidence, not a bad instructor — the record count is in every row.
The line
All 13 items · means across 5 recordsBar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.
Game log
5 sections · newest first| Instructor | Term | Sec | Instr | Course | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M Cathleen Kaveny | Fall 2025 | 01 | 100 | 100 | — |
| Thomas Kohler | Spring 2025 | 01 | 87 | 84 | — |
| M Cathleen Kaveny | Fall 2023 | 01 | 88 | 80 | — |
| M Cathleen Kaveny | Fall 2022 | 01 | 89 | 89 | 60 |
| Nathaniel Romano | Fall 2021 | 01 | 91 | 84 | 60 |
How to read this boardInstructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.