scholarly journals The French state and the church: Socio-historical context, structural conditionality and character of laicism

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-114
Author(s):  
Ivica Mladenovic

In the article, the author deals with the political and social influences of the relationship between the state and religious communities in France. The first part of the paper is an analysis of historical context and the construction (evolution) of laicism in France through its local characteristics, values and social strengths, contributing to its formation. The fact that Catholic Church was one of the main legitimizing pillars of ?the old regime?, permanently determined the relationship between church and state, most importantly - it?s subsequent social exclusion under the Republic. The 1789 French revolution in conjunction with the 1905 law on the Separation of church and state, up until present time, have been seen as the most important events in defining the relationship between political and religious entities in France. The second part of the paper continues in outlining the founding logic and principles of the contemporary relationship between religious communities and the French state. The article concludes in suggesting that through its persistence of a purely Laicistic model of state-church affiliation, view of the nation as a community of citizens, Weberian definition of the State, and the acceptance of the public sphere as common space in which communal interests are negated, France today represents an isolated island on the European continent.

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 751-770
Author(s):  
Miljan Lazović ◽  
Dušan Ilić

In this paper, the authors deal with the analysis of new antidiscrimination legal solutions proposed by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which would redefine the relations between the state and the church. The focus of the research will be especially on those solutions that could threaten, on the one hand, the principle of secularity, and on the other hand, some of the fundamental human rights, such as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The solutions proposed by the amendments to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, it seems, could be problematic from the standpoint of guaranteeing certain fundamental human rights and freedoms, but also the autonomy of churches and religious communities. Some of the proposals made by the Ministry could be seen as an attempt to return the verbal offence to the Serbian legal system. Accordingly, the authors will try to re-examine the possible impact of changes in antidiscrimination legislation on the relationship between the state and the church, but also on the possible suppression of religious rights and freedoms in the Republic of Serbia in the coming period.


Author(s):  
Jennifer Walker

This book is the first comprehensive study that reevaluates music’s role in the relationship between the French state and the Catholic Church at the end of the nineteenth century. As the divide between Church and State widened on the political stage, more and more composers began writing religious—even liturgical—music for performance in decidedly secular venues, including popular cabaret theaters, prestigious opera houses, and international exhibitions: a trend that coincided with Pope Leo XIII’s Ralliement politics that encouraged conservative Catholics to “rally” with the Republican government. But the idea of a musical Ralliement has largely gone unquestioned by historians and musicologists alike who have long accepted a somewhat simplistic epistemological position that emphasizes a sharp division between the Church and the “secular” Republic during this period. Drawing on extensive archival research, critical reception studies, and musical analysis, this book reveals how composers and critics from often opposing ideological factions undermined the secular/sacred binary. From the opera house and niche puppet theaters to Parisian parish churches and Montmartre’s famed cabarets, composers and critics from opposing ideological factions used music in their effort to craft a brand of Frenchness that was built on the dual foundations of secular Republicanism and the heritage of the French Catholic Church.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL PRINTY

This article examines Charles Villers'sEssay on the Spirit and Influence of Luther's Reformation(1804) in its intellectual and historical context. Exiled from France after 1792, Villers intervened in important French and German debates about the relationship of religion, history, and philosophy. The article shows how he took up a German Protestant discussion on the meaning of the Reformation that had been underway from the 1770s through the end of the century, including efforts by Kantians to seize the mantle of Protestantism for themselves. Villers's essay capitalized on a broad interest in the question of Protestantism and its meaning for modern freedom around 1800. Revisiting the formation of the narrative of Protestantism and progress reveals that it was not a logical progression from Protestant theology or religion but rather part of a specific ideological and social struggle in the wake of the French Revolution and the collapse of the Old Regime.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
Arman MANUKYAN

The article discusses the interrelated relationship between education and the labour market. The balance of the labour market-university system is considered as the main problem. It is substantiated that today, with the state system's management, it is possible to achieve greater efficiency. In the absence of public administration, employers and universities find it difficult to find systematized solutions independently. The article presents some of the most relevant solutions, which are more practical for urgent correction of the situation.


2013 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
Vincent Duclert

The recent presidential elections in 2012 have shown that left-right cleavage was still dominant in France. The redistribution of political forces, strongly awaited by the center (but also by the extremes) did not take place. At the same time, the major issues, such the European unification, the future of the nation, the future of the Republic, the role of the state, continue to cross left and right fields, revealing other cleavages that meet other historical or philosophical contingencies. However, the left-right opposition in France structured contemporary political life, organizing political families, determining the meaning and practice of institutions. Thence, the question is to understand what defines these two political fields and what history brings to their knowledge since the French Revolution, or they are implemented


2021 ◽  
pp. 292-304
Author(s):  
Jennifer Walker

Taking the 1903 death of Pope Leo XIII as its starting point, the conclusion extends beyond the legal separation of Church and State (1905) in order to trace the ways in which the processes of transformation that were set in motion during the late nineteenth century continued well into the twentieth century. Pierre Nora’s concept of the lieu de memoire illuminates the numerous ways that the sites of Catholic and French memory that the book explores—whether as opera, popular theatre, or concert—found an extraordinary ally in the Republic as it collectively harnessed the power of memory. From its “origin” in the French medieval era, to its transformations throughout the fin-de-siècle, to the response to the devastating fire at Notre-Dame in 2019, the Catholic Church provided (and continues to provide) a new mode of expression for the French Republic. In effect, the success of the twentieth-century renouveau catholique was set in motion by its nineteenth-century forbear: the path was paved by the Republic’s musical Ralliement and the memorialization of its Catholic past as a fundamental cornerstone of its modern existence.


Author(s):  
Michael Lauener

Abstract Protection of the church and state stability through the absence of religious 'shallowness': views on religion-policy of Jeremias Gotthelf and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel out of a spirit of reconciliation. The article re-examines a thesis of Paul Baumgartner published in 1945: "Jeremias Gotthelf's, 'Zeitgeist and Bernergeist', A Study on Introduction and Interpretation", that if the Swiss writer and keen Hegel-opponent Jeremias Gotthelf had read any book of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, some of this would have received his recognition. Both Gotthelf and Hegel see the Reformation to be the cause of the emergence of a strong state. For Gotthelf, this marks the beginning of a process of strengthening the state at the expense of the church. Hegel, on the other hand, considers the modern state to be the reality of freedom, produced by the Christian 'religion of freedom' (Rph, §270 Z., p. 430). In contrast to Gotthelf, for whom only Christ can reconcile the state and religion, Hegel praises the French Revolution as "reconciliation of the divine with the world". For Gotthelf, the French Revolution was only a poor imitation of the process of spiritual and political liberation initiated by the Reformation, through which Christ reduced people to their original liberty. Nevertheless, both Gotthelf and Hegel want to protect the state and the church from falling apart, they reject organizational unity of state – religion – church in the sense of a theocracy, and demand the protection of church communities.


Author(s):  
Bielefeldt Heiner, Prof ◽  
Ghanea Nazila, Dr ◽  
Wiener Michael, Dr

This chapter discusses various human rights violations that arise in the context of constructing, owning, accessing, using, protecting, and preserving places of worship or other religious sites. When members of religious communities wish to construct and own places of worship they often face restrictions that are imposed by the State or competing claims by other religious communities. In this context, the conversion of places of worship as well as their confiscation and unfair restitution provisions may lead to further problems for religious communities. Furthermore, access to religious sites and their use is often unduly restricted by the State, impeded in practice by non-State actors, or hampered by religious precepts which discriminate against some people within the same religious or belief community. The chapter also discusses issues of interpretation, including the relationship between international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the context of religious sites, the obligations of various duty-bearers, and sacred sites of indigenous peoples.


1955 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kreider

Since the dawn of the Christian era the relationship between church and state has been one of the pivotal issues of western civilization. Men have offered a variety of answers to this problem. The much- persecuted Anabaptists of the 16th century presented one set of answers, radical for their age, which called for a decisive separation of the church from the state and complete freedom for the church to pursue its vocation in the world. The Anabaptists were a distressing annoyance to the civil authorities. This movement posed for the 16th century the acute problem: how should religious dissent be handled?


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Bernard Wiśniewski

This article presents the essential issues in the provisions of the law relating to public security in force in the Republic of Poland which are used in conditions of extraordinary internal threats that cannot be dealt with using ordinary legal tools. The considerations are based on an analysis of the legally regulated obligations of the state as a political organisation to society for securing the conditions for its survival in a changing security environment. This serves to present the basic issues of public security and the rules for the use of the State instruments for states of emergency. The rest of this article presents the relationship between issues of public security and a state of emergency. In this part of the article it is essential to discuss the circumstances that must exist to be able to employ specific legal measures in the conditions of threats to the constitutional order of the State and threats affecting the security of the citizens or of public order (including those caused by terrorist activities). Consequently, it discusses the impact of the rigours of a state of emergency in relation to the potential for limiting the escalation of these threats. The final part of the article also presents other instruments, apart from the state of emergency which, in the Polish legal system, can be used in the fight against threats which endanger public security and that are related to prohibited activities in cyberspace.


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