Church and State

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary course considers the political implications of belief in the Church as a universal spiritual society with a visible institutional dimension. Beginning with the ancient world, in which the fusion of religious and political authority was the norm, the course surveys major periods in the history of church-state relations as one pole and then the other grew more dominant. The course concludes with an exploration of contemporary debates about the liberal democratic state, its foundations, and its proper relation to the Church in a society marked by religious pluralism. (Offered occasionally)