RT Article
T1 Religion as Liberal Politics
JF Journal of law and religion
VO 39
IS 2
SP 151
OP 172
A1 Adenitire, John ca. 20./21. Jh.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1908716665
AB US and UK courts define religion as a belief system dealing with existential concerns, which is separable from politics, and need not be theistic. Where does this concept of religion come from? Some scholars trace it to the advent of the Protestant Reformation when religion became a matter of competing theological propositions. My analysis of both John Calvin and Roger Williams shows that those Protestant thinkers emphasized the view that religion is essentially a belief system. However, Protestantism cannot explain all of the features of the US and UK concept of religion. It is because of the liberal belief in individual rights and in popular sovereignty that early liberals like Roger Williams and contemporary courts embrace the separability of religion from politics. These courts also reject the view that religion is necessarily theistic given their liberal commitment to treating citizens that subscribe to certain non-theistic ideologies as equal citizens to citizens with theistic ideologies.
K1 Protestantism
K1 Definition
K1 Liberalism
K1 Religion
K1 Religious Freedom
DO 10.1017/jlr.2024.7