Religion, Secularism, And Constitutional Democracy (religion, Culture, And Public Life)
by Jean Cohen /
2015 / English / PDF
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Polarization between political religionists and militant
secularists on both sides of the Atlantic is on the rise.
Critically engaging with traditional secularism and religious
accommodationism, this collection introduces a constitutional
secularism that robustly meets contemporary challenges. It
identifies which connections between religion and the state are
compatible with the liberal, republican, and democratic principles
of constitutional democracy and assesses the success of their
implementation in the birthplace of political secularism: the
United States and Western Europe.
Polarization between political religionists and militant
secularists on both sides of the Atlantic is on the rise.
Critically engaging with traditional secularism and religious
accommodationism, this collection introduces a constitutional
secularism that robustly meets contemporary challenges. It
identifies which connections between religion and the state are
compatible with the liberal, republican, and democratic principles
of constitutional democracy and assesses the success of their
implementation in the birthplace of political secularism: the
United States and Western Europe.
Approaching this issue from philosophical, legal, historical,
political, and sociological perspectives, the contributors wage a
thorough defense of their project's theoretical and institutional
legitimacy. Their work brings fresh insight to debates over the
balance of human rights and religious freedom, the proper
definition of a nonestablishment norm, and the relationship between
sovereignty and legal pluralism. They discuss the genealogy of and
tensions involving international legal rights to religious freedom,
religious symbols in public spaces, religious arguments in public
debates, the jurisdiction of religious authorities in personal law,
and the dilemmas of religious accommodation in national
constitutions and public policy when it violates international
human rights agreements or liberal-democratic principles. If we
profoundly rethink the concepts of religion and secularism, these
thinkers argue, a principled adjudication of competing claims
becomes possible.
Approaching this issue from philosophical, legal, historical,
political, and sociological perspectives, the contributors wage a
thorough defense of their project's theoretical and institutional
legitimacy. Their work brings fresh insight to debates over the
balance of human rights and religious freedom, the proper
definition of a nonestablishment norm, and the relationship between
sovereignty and legal pluralism. They discuss the genealogy of and
tensions involving international legal rights to religious freedom,
religious symbols in public spaces, religious arguments in public
debates, the jurisdiction of religious authorities in personal law,
and the dilemmas of religious accommodation in national
constitutions and public policy when it violates international
human rights agreements or liberal-democratic principles. If we
profoundly rethink the concepts of religion and secularism, these
thinkers argue, a principled adjudication of competing claims
becomes possible.