Church and State, Church in State

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2021

DOI:

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Church and State, Church in State

Daniela Cârstea

ABSTRACT: 

When we talk about the relationship between the State and the Church, we generally mean by “Church” the acknowledged Christian rites, yet in the present argumentative, discursive environment, references will be made to its concrete instantiations, namely the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Church (the order follows the criterion of sequential approach). The purpose of this paper is to briefly analyse the three existing models regulating the limits and the areas of intersectionality between the spiritual and the lay power, recognisable and identifiable in the countries of the European Community. One would be that of a total and radical cleavage between State and Church, endemic – hopefully the word will not incur accusations of sweeping generalisation – to France, a reason why it will be called the “French model”. A second one is the antipodal model of a total identification between the two, to be noticed preeminently in England, which will be named, for the sake of consistency, the “English model”. The third and last one is the type of relationship existing in Germany, the “German model”, on the principle of distinct cooperation.

Keywords: dechristianisation; supraconfessional; Hobbes; post-Byzantine; social iconoclasm.