Individualization of Religious Beliefs, Secularization and Religion-State Relations

A growing trend of religious life in contemporary Western societies is the number of religiously unaffiliated people (also known as “nones”). Some of them believe in nothing, but many others shape religious beliefs with their own, individual understanding of God, the world, and their place in it. They may have specific convictions of what their religion requires or can believe in dogmas of different religions simultaneously, practice spiritual meditation, or sacralize cultural phenomena or ideological concepts.

From a philosophical perspective, the individualization of religion challenges a wide-spread understanding of organized religion (where believers worship God in communion) as the main form of spiritual life. From a law and religion perspective, the questions are how the state should deal with such individualized religious beliefs. Should they be protected under the premises of religious freedom? How will individualization affect religion-state relations?

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Secular Constitutionalism: Introduction to the ICLRS Webinar, held December 7, 2020

Brett G. Scharffs is the Rex E. Lee Chair, Professor of Law, and the Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. BSBA, MA Georgetown University, B.Phil Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar), JD Yale Law School

The blog/webinar model represents a new and important method for doing meaningful work. We can listen and learn from each other, even when we cannot be physically together, and it allows us to post the work quickly and get it into the marketplace of ideas. This is important with the world we live in, and the rapidly changing situation with COVID. I’d like to thank all of our scholars, thanks to those of you who are joining us to listen, and thanks to those who are speaking. We will be focusing today on secular constitutionalism in Poland, Russia, Germany, and Australia.

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Amplifying President Russell M. Nelson’s Message of Gratitude and Hope

Brett G. Scharffs is Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies and Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law, BYU Law School

This article is related to President Russell M. Nelson’s address on the Healing Power of Gratitude​ (November 20, 2020).

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier today, President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared with the world a message of hope and gratitude. This is a man whom I revere as a prophet of God, and his message is genuinely universal and will be meaningful to all people of faith and, indeed I believe, to all people. I invite you to view it and to share his message at #GiveThanks.

President Nelson shared a poignant personal experience. As a doctor, he had worked on developing the first heart-lung machine used in open-heart surgeries. Decades later, “My wife Dantzel and I were sitting on the sofa holding hands while we watched television. Suddenly, she collapsed. Despite being well- trained to treat the very thing that ended her life, I could not save my own wife.” He then described the pain of losing two of his nine daughters to cancer, noting quietly, “No parent is prepared to lose a child.”

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