Law and Religion Colloquium

Catalog description

Secularization has played a key role in the road to modernization propelled by the Enlightenment. Confinement of religion to the private sphere has been widely promoted until the end of the twentieth century. At the dawn of the new millennium, however, religion has reemerged as a contentious social and political public issue both domestically and internationally as the de-privatization of religion has propelled religions towards an increasingly ubiquitous place in the political arena. Despite remarkable differences, from a constitutional standpoint, all Western models for managing the relationship between the state and religion adhere to two fundamental principles: separation of Church and State in the public sphere; and protection of freedom of and from religion within the private sphere. Globalization and mass scale migration, however, have put in question the powers of integration of a secularized society. The crisis surrounding the nation state has positioned religions to become at once major sources of integration of the polity as well as fomenters of vexing challenges against major tenets of the polity's predominant culture. This has led to two consequences in predominantly Christian polities: first, the return of Christian culture and tradition in the public sphere, challenging the principle of separation between Church and State; and, second that promotion of religion as culture has fostered a marginalization of both non-Christian religious and secular cultures and Christians who object to the culturalization of their religion in ways they consider to be offensive to their faith. The Colloquium will bring together, on a weekly basis, prominent speakers from many countries, disciplines, religious traditions and constitutional cultures to address various salient conflicts and challenges posed by the state of affairs described above.