Silvio Ferrari | The Christian Roots of the Secular State

This is the first lecture in the series "Beyond secular/religious division: The role of religion in the public sphere in polarized Europe", presented by the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and the Centre for European Studies at Lund University. Prof. Silvio Ferrari, of University of Milan, writes in the abstract for the lecture: "In this presentation, I argue that the different fortunes of the secular state in the predominantly Jewish, Christian and Muslim countries depend significantly (although not exclusively) on their different religious background and, in particular, on the conception of God’s law that developed in the theological and legal traditions of these three religions. After a short description of what God’s law means in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic legal systems, I shall focus on the different interpretations of the nature and scope of God’s law in these religious traditions. The impact that these differences have on the acceptance (or rejection) of the secular state in Israel and in the Christian and Muslim countries will be examined in the last part of this chapter." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion and Theology is produced by Joel Kuhlin for the Center for Theology and Religious Studies. If you have comments or critique of this episode, or any other episodes of R&T, please write an email to [email protected]. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music for R&T is generously provided by the trio Nous (Thomas Hellsten, Tom Tveita, Per Boqvist).