Religion, State, and Society (original) (raw)
Related papers
[Introduction] We find ourselves, in Europe and in America, after centuries of separation between religion and the state: religion is regarded as a matter of freedom of conscience, concerning the private life of a person, while the state deals with the administration, neutral in relation to the private convictions of citizens, in the public interest. The modern state is built on the premise of a separation: public interest actions originate in secular reasons and people have the unrestricted freedom to promote their religious beliefs, in their private life and in worship places.
2015
State, Religion and Church is an academic peerreviewed journal devoted to the interdisciplinary scholarly study of religion.
Religion and the State: A Reflection of the Relationship between the Two Worlds.
Since the inception of democracy in the early revolution age, there have been so many issues raised from time to time concerning religion (and the Church), democracy (and the state) and how the two are interwoven together. The relationship between them has passed through stages of development, each time synthesizing into something different as the years come and pass by. Even though some argue that religion is as old as man himself on earth, there are still certain salient issues concerning people’s view of religion and the dogma it causes due to human reasoning and high thinking ability. Is the church and the state separate or equal, is one of the questions that have been lingering in my mind ever since I was old enough to think of it. In most cases, the issue of the church been separate from the state is viewed from the point that churches should stay out of politics, and that those who venture into politics should strictly do politics and maintain or keep their religious believes. This is simply thought of by the Europeans in the sixteenth century that the two cannot be interwoven together; as they think one can influence the activities of the other thereby leading to a gross, or some kind of deviation in the duties of such.
Faculty of Social and Cultural Sciences Essay for MA Course " Religion and Politics in the US "
The intersection of religion with politics remains an important topic in political science from the earliest times. Some observers argue that there is a wall of separation between these two entities, others say that separation is impossible since religion is a part of human life and believing in something is what differentiates us from other creatures. It is hard to decide who is right but it is obvious that there must be some boundaries defining what role religion and politics should play in each other’s realms and what influence they can make on each other.
A major argument for the separation of religion and state is that of equality: if a given state chooses one religion to support, members of minority religions will expectedly feel alienated, and grow resentful of the state itself and its organs. This argument was utilized by major legal and political philosophers (Nussbaum, Dworkin) and major courts (U.S. Supreme Court, ECHR). As a part of an empirical turn in legal and political theory ('realistic', 'contextual', 'experimental'), we examine whether the analyses of cross-country empirical data from numerous democratic and nondemocratic states support the 'equality' argument. We found no cross-country evidence to support the equality argument. We locate these findings within the context of recent debates regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the separation model.
Separation of Religion and State and Secularism in Theory and in Practice
This study examines whether states follow the religion policies they declare in their constitutions. It identifies four types of policies which officially seek to limit religion’s role in government: absolute separation of religion and state (SRAS); neutral political concern; exclusion of ideals; and secularism–laicism. I determine whether states follow these policies using the religion and state (RAS) dataset and compare this to constitutional declarations that the state is secular and declarations of separation of religion and state. The results show that a majority of states which make both types of declaration do not follow these policies based on any of the four standards used in this study. However, the presence and wording of these clauses are correlated with state religion policy.