Political and Moral power: The Example of the Relations Between the State and the Religious Community

Abstract

The full-scale primordial force of religion can be fully expressed only when social and political constraints have been removed. In contradistimction to other phenomena, authentic religion is privileged in not being a factor of pressure, in not demarcating the space of its existence by ousting other phenomena. The author reviews the different tendencies within religion within the framework of its three constitutive elements (ideological, interpretative and normative-orientative). Regarding this the author notes that religions can assume the form of nationalistically coloured protest movements which frequently homogenize the people into a unified force of resistance. This resistance arises as an unwillingness to reconcile oneself with evident national inequalities or similar matters. This shows that religion, owing to its sensibility, points to those problematic nodes which equally effect both its fate and the fate of society as a whole. If its engagement did not trespass this boundary it would safeguard itself from its own dissolution and would contribute to the affirmative advancement of society.