The purpose of the article is to draw closer to the ontology of a religious community. This need has been justified, theoretical resources have been proposed, based on which a similar ontology can be built. These include the concept of "assemblies", actor-network theory (B. Latour, M. Kallon, J. Lo), the concept of "community" (M. Blanchot, J.-L. Nancy, J. Agamben). As a result, it is possible to consider a religious community as a binding event, not relying on objectification.
This article looks at Taiwan's policy towards religion to show that non-Western societies can also achieve what Alfred Stepan called a "twin toleration" wherein the state does not intervene in religious affairs, and religion does not seek to control the state. The paper shows the sets of constraints in which policy-makers struggling for an adequate way to deal with religion operate. They have to choose among a variety of models in democratic societies, to take into account the legacy of the authoritarian era, and to consider the specificities of Taiwan's situation, influenced by a Chinese cultural heritage, Japanese colonialism and observations from other parts of the world. The paper then describes how these constraints have influenced the major stages in the evolution of relations between state and religions in Taiwanese society and then argue that the state had yet to reach a consensus up until 2008 on the legislation of religion because of disagreements between different religious actors. (JCCA/GIGA)
The history of state-religion relations in Taiwan from 1945 to the present can be divided into three stages. The first stage lasted from 1945 to 1987 during which the Leninist state, for the first time in Chinese history, effectively exercised tight control over religion. In the second stage, from 1987 to 2000, the democratizing state gradually withdrew its control over religion while most religious groups tended to refrain from involvement in politics. From 2000 to the present, the democratic state and various religions have developed constructive relations involving checks and balances, and this has maximized religious freedom, helped eradicate religious discrimination, and expanded the democratic participation of religious groups in politics. This paper combines theories of the state in political economy and religious market theory to explain these changes in religion-state relations and their impact on religious freedom. In conclusion, state-religion relations in Taiwan may provide an alternative model for appropriate state intervention in religion and the involvement of religion in politics in transitional democracies. (Issues Stud/GIGA)
The University is a European institution par excellence. Having emerged in the era of the mature Middle Ages, it remains to this day the most important type of educational institution that sets the patterns of western higher education development. Over the past centuries, the university, whose fate at the formation stage was closely related to the Christian tradition, has undergone significant transformations. In the context of the institutionalization of nation states, the role of the Catholic Church in university life has decreased. The European educational space began to acquire secular features. If in the Middle Ages Catholic universalism created favorable conditions for international cooperation of educational institutions, then in the XVIII-XIX centuries, universities were subject to nationalization. It was only after the Second World War that the idea of European reunification, embodied in the European integration project, marked the need for cooperation between both secular and religious educational institutions. At the same time, it actualized the problems of harmonious interaction between the church and the state, including educational policy issues. The article examines the main milestones in the history and current status of relations between European universities and Catholicism. The article analyzes the documents of the Holy See and modern classifications reflecting the variability of Catholic universities. Particular attention is paid to secularization as a long-term and predominantly European process of separation of religious and political spheres, which was accompanied by the removal of religion from the public space, and theology from the curriculum. The authors conclude that secularization is a key factor in changing the university identity from a religious corporatism to an academic community.
Despite a robust literature on general forms of state repression, the determinants of religious repression remain unclear. This article argues that a regime's experience with religious conflict will lead it to be more repressive of religious groups within its territory for three primary reasons. Religious conflict increases the behavioral threat posed by religious groups, lowers the cost of repressing these communities, and evokes vivid memories of past religious violence that underscore the role of the state in taming religion to maintain social order. New, cross-national data on religious conflict and repression from 1990 to 2009 show that religious conflict has a significant and positive effect on the level of religious repression for the time period under investigation, expanding the types and severity of government restrictions on religion in a country. Our findings point to the importance of studying the causes and nature of negative sanctions against religious communities, specifically.
