"The transcripted conversations that represent the substance of this volume are the result of a research project funded by the United Kingdom's Arts and Humanities Research Council. The product of nearly three years of interviews conducted with senior religious figures from a diversity of religious traditions, this book represents a physical and political-theological journey around England - from metropolitan capital through provincial cities and rural hinterlands, from rural episcopal palaces to industrial estates, from London mansion houses to remote mountain monastery - and provides a snapshot fo how religious leaders and authority figures respond to contemporary issues of freedom of expression. Religious authority and the arts has a substantial introduction that situates the conversations within a theological, political, and cultural framework." -- Back cover.