ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies and illustrates the most prominent crimes against God and against the Church. The interrelationship between the public and the ecclesiastical content of these crimes is one dominant consideration, and one which has shifted over time. The eighteenth-century English jurist William Blackstone provided an authoritative and exhaustive list of crimes against God, many though not quite all, of which have become obsolete in modern times in a more pluralist world. The offence of blasphemy, notwithstanding mounting human rights challenges, is among the most durable and can still be found in the positive law of predominantly Christian states.
