This webinar organized by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies’ Blog “Talk About: Law and Religion”
7 December 2020
9:00 a.m. (Mountain Time), 17:00 (Central European time)
Carl Schmitt points out in Political Theology that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.” Likewise, many doctrines and concepts of modern constitutionalism have theological roots and have been developed in the dialogue with religious tradition. Religion has never fully disappeared from texts of secular constitutions—it lingers in symbolic references to God, religious formulas in presidential oaths, constitutional agreements with churches of majorities, and so on.
This webinar aims to explore the normative, interpretative, political, and symbolic role of mentioning God, the Trinity, and other sacraments in secular constitutions. The panelists will consider the German, Australian, Polish, and Russian cases.
The estimated time of the webinar is 1.5 hours. Each panelist will have up to 7 minutes for a presentation, and then there will be a Q&A session.
Panelists:
Prof. Brett G. Scharffs (BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies)
Prof. Justin Collings (BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School)
Prof. Nicholas Aroney (University of Queensland)
Prof. Mikhail Antonov (National Research University “Higher School of Economics”)
Prof. Piotr Szymaniec (Angelus Silesius University of Applied Sciences in Wałbrzych)
Moderator: Dr. Dmytro Vovk (Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University)
See more on the topic:
God in Secular Constitutions: https://talkabout.iclrs.org/2020/10/31/god-in-secular-constitutions/