Liberal Neutrality and State Support for Religion

Liberal Neutrality and State Support for Religion
Author: Leni Franken
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2016-05-18
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319289446

This book focuses on the financing of religions, examining some European church-state models, using a philosophical methodology. The work defends autonomy-based liberalism and elaborates how this liberalism can meet the requirements of liberal neutrality. The chapters also explore religious education and the financing of institutionalized religion. This volume collates the work of top scholars in the field. Starting from the idea that autonomy-based liberalism is an adequate framework for the requirement of liberal neutrality, the author elaborates why a liberal state can support religions and how she should do this, without violating the principle of neutrality. Taking into account the principle of religious freedom and the separation of church and state, this work explores which criteria the state should take into account when she actively supports religions, faith-based schools and religious education. A number of concrete church-state models, including hands-off, religious accommodation and the state church are evaluated, and the book gives some recommendations in order to optimize those church-state models, where needed. Practitioners and scholars of politics, law, philosophy and education, especially religious education, will find this work of particular interest as it has useful guidelines on policies and practices, as well as studies of church-state models.

State Neutrality

State Neutrality
Author: Kerry O'Halloran
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2021-01-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108481590

O'Halloran provides a comparative evaluation of contemporary law as it relates to religion in six developed nations.

Religion in a Liberal State

Religion in a Liberal State
Author: Gavin D'Costa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2013-08-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107042038

Leading authors in politics, law, sociology and theology discuss what the proper place of religion is in a liberal state.

Liberal Neutrality

Liberal Neutrality
Author: Alexa Zellentin
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2012-08-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110255197

Liberal neutrality has two underlying intuitions and therefore two distinct elements. On the one hand it refers to the intuition that there are matters the state has no business getting involved in. On the other hand it is motivated by the idea that the state ought to treat citizens as equals and show equal respect for their different cenceptions of the good life. This book defends this two-fold understanding of neutrality with reference to Rawls’ conception of citizens as free and equal persons. Treating citizens as equals requires the state to grant its citizens equal political rights and also to ensure that these rights have “fair value”. Given the danger that cultural bias undermines the equal standing of citizens, the state has to ensure procedures of political decision making that are able to take citizens’ different conceptions into account.

Religious Ideas in Liberal Democratic States

Religious Ideas in Liberal Democratic States
Author: Jasper Doomen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2021-07-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1793618399

Religious Ideas in Liberal Democratic States adds new context to the ongoing debate over the scope of religious freedom, drawing from a variety of perspectives to discuss the meaning of religion itself within a democratic state. This book argues that categorizing religion as a solely private affair is too narrow an interpretation and questions whether ideas like freedom, human dignity, and equality can be truly actualized in a neutral and secular state. Contributors explore the impact of religion, acknowledged or not, on legislation, human rights, and group rights through legal, historical, and sociological lenses. Scholars of constitutional law, jurisprudence, international law, and political science will find this book particularly useful.

Liberalism’s Religion

Liberalism’s Religion
Author: Cécile Laborde
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2017-09-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0674976266

Cécile Laborde argues that religion is more than a statement of belief or a moral code. It refers to comprehensive ways of life, theories of justice, modes of association, and vulnerable collective identities. By disaggregating these dimensions, she addresses questions about whether Western secularism and religion can be applied more universally.

Free Exercise of Religion in the Liberal Polity

Free Exercise of Religion in the Liberal Polity
Author: Emily R. Gill
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2019-08-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030250377

This book addresses the challenge of providing for the free exercise of religion without allowing religious exercise by some individuals and groups to impinge upon the conscientious convictions of others. State neutrality toward religion is impossible, because neutrality means inattention to religion for some, but leveling the playing field through accommodations or exemptions for others. Both formal and substantive neutrality have a place in addressing particular conflicts. One such example is public funding for religiously affiliated social service programs, for which neither type of neutrality is satisfactory and thus some restrictions are justifiable; conversely, private voluntary organizations that do not receive direct public funding should be allowed wide latitude regarding their practices. This title also examines the expansive free exercise claims that are now made by those who argue that following the law impinges upon their beliefs, as exemplified by the ministerial exception and the Hobby Lobby and Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court cases. It concludes by analyzing the relationship between neutrality and marriage as a civil status, which impacts a variety of commitment types and plural marriage.

Religion in a Liberal State

Religion in a Liberal State
Author: Gavin D'Costa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2013-08-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1107435749

As religion has become more visible in public life, with closer relations of co-operation with government as well as a force in some political campaigns, its place in public life has become more contested. Fudged compromises of the past are giving way to a desire for clear lines and moral principles. This book brings the disciplines of law, sociology, politics and theology into conversation with one anther to shed light on the questions thrown up by 'religion in a liberal state'. It discusses practical problems in a British context, such as the accommodation of religious dress, discrimination against sexual minorities and state support for historic religions; considers legal frameworks of equality and human rights; and elucidates leading ideas of neutrality, pluralism, secularism and public reason. Fundamentally, it asks what it means to be liberal in a world in which religious diversity is becoming more present and more problematic.

Religious Freedom in the Liberal State

Religious Freedom in the Liberal State
Author: Rex Ahdar
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2013-03-21
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019164871X

Examining the law and public policy relating to religious liberty in Western liberal democracies, this book contains a detailed analysis of the history, rationale, scope, and limits of religious freedom from (but not restricted to) an evangelical Christian perspective. Focussing on United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and EU, it studies the interaction between law and religion at several different levels, looking at the key debates that have arisen. Divided into three parts, the book begins by contrasting the liberal and Christian rationales for and understandings of religious freedom. It then explores central thematic issues: the types of constitutional frameworks within which any right to religious exercise must operate; the varieties of paradigmatic relationships between organized religion and the state; the meaning of 'religion'; the limitations upon individual and institutional religious behaviour; and the domestic and international legal mechanisms that have evolved to address religious conduct. The final part explores key subject areas where current religious freedom controversies have arisen: employment; education; parental rights and childrearing; controls on pro-religious and anti-religious expression; medical treatment; and religious group (church) autonomy. This new edition is fully updated with the growing case law in the area, and features increased coverage of Islam and the flashpoint debates surrounding the accommodation of Muslim beliefs and practices in Anglophone nations.