CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Zedelashvili, Davit |
|---|---|
| Title | Religious Identities and Fading Modernity: The Case of "War for Souls" |
| Summary | The project aims to deal with the problem of religious identities as a basis of political relation in constitutional state. First chapter inquires into the case study of the phenomenon of the “war for souls”, taking place in Greece, Georgia and Russia against proselytizing religious denominations. The problem is analyzed in wider social, historical, cultural and political context. As a major finding of the first chapter, it is argued that due to specific contextual considerations essentially similar in the countries under review, religious identities are entrenched in politics. This in turn leads to the suppression of the rival religious denominations to avoid the perceived dangers of Pluralism. Second Chapter analyzes selected jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in order to trace normative solutions. In conclusion of the second chapter, it is argued that European Court of Human Rights significantly defers to member states with dominant religious identities, creating internal contradiction with the court’s pluralistic conception of Democracy and the neutrality of state in religious matters. After finding the difficulties with European Human Rights Law analysis; third chapter discusses the issue in wider framework of philosophy and political and constitutional theory. As a result the principle of secularism is identified as a normative solution. Concluding remarks summarize the advantages and shortcomings of the principle of secularism and contend that the findings of the present thesis may inform redefinition of its content to better address social reality. |
| Supervisor | Uitz, Renata |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/zedelashvili_davit.pdf |
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