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30 Cardozo L. Rev. 2473 (2008-2009)
Freedom and Faith - Foundations of Freedom of Religion

handle is hein.journals/cdozo30 and id is 2491 raw text is: FREEDOM AND FAITH-FOUNDATIONS OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION Matthias Mahlmann* Human religiosity has taken many forms in history, and there is no less variety in contemporary culture. There are many contentious issues in the religious systems that exist-for example, the number and nature of divine forces, their relationship to the world, the proper path to redemption and the justification of human lives and deeds. There is, however, a common thread in all these debates: religion is not an ornamental side issue of human life; religion forms a central existential concern. Human religiosity has manifold consequences: It still inspires today impressive moral deeds and is at the root of some of the greatest achievements of humankind's aesthetic creativity. Religion can also lead to great human tragedies, as people are prepared to give their lives for religious matters and also to sacrifice the lives of others in the pursuit of some religious idea. Not only religion accompanies human civilization since its existence. The critique of religion is as old as human reflection itself and forms another thread of human culture. The most powerful challenge to the foundations of religions was and still is formulated in modem times by the rise of natural sciences with their new explanations about the structure and origin of the world and the place human beings enjoy in it. Of course, there are many attempts to reconcile religion and science. But there are other sources of doubt as well: The historical interpretation and analysis of holy texts put their literal authority in question. The religious philosophy of the Enlightenment formulated critiques of Christianity and of religion in general, establishing with some self-confidence the epistemological priority of reason over belief. These developments had important political dimensions. They were not only a theoretical chapter in the history of ideas. They nourished major secular political movements on whose agenda the overcoming of the * Prof. Dr. Matthias Mahlmann, Chair of Legal Theory, Legal Sociology and International Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich. This article is based on talks at King's College, London, the University of Oxford and Harvard Law School. For a German language version of these arguments, see Matthias Mahlmann, Ethische Duldsamkeit und Glauben, in EIN NEUER KAMPF DER RELIGIONEN? STAAT, RECHT UND RELIGIOSE TOLERANZ 75 (Matthias Mahlmann & Hubert Rottleuthner eds., 2006). 2473

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