Explore the relationship between religions and governments and learn how religions have come to be governed across the world. Explore ways of governing religion and religious diversity today. On this course you will consider different models of state-religion relations, reviewing examples from both European and non-European countries. You will learn how different models have emerged out of historical processes of nation formation (including post-colonial independence, redrawing of state boundaries after a major political transition or through an evolutionary process of institutional and value change).

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You will also consider your own experiences, and debate ideal models for governing religion and religious diversity in today’s world.

Syllabus

Week 1: European Approaches to Governing Religion

Week 2: Asian and Middle Eastern Approaches to Governing Religion

Week 3: Best Practices in Comparative Perspective

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Investigate current debates on state-religion relations

- Reflect on different countries and different regimes for governing religious diversity

- Discuss critically the notion of secularism and the idea of a neutral state that governs religion by ‘tolerating’ its presence or indeed by excluding it from the public space

- Assess models in which religion is given a prominent role in the public space and religious diversity is accommodated precisely because religion is seen as an important matter

- Compare the experiences of different countries and identify the ingredients of a religious governance regime that accommodates both believers and non believers and makes room for religious diversity