ABSTRACT
One of the difficulties in preparing a reader on church-state relations in comparative perspective is that the very concepts of church and state imply a somewhat parochial Anglo-American cultural standpoint. Although the value of religious pluralism is (by most modern interpretations) ingrained in the American constitutional foundation, the familiar notion of churchstate relations is derived partly from the British establishmentarian context. In other words, we tend to assume a single relationship between two clearly distinct, unitary and solidly but separately institutionalized entities. In the implicit model built into the American conceptualization of the religiopolitical nexus there is one state and one church, whose jurisdictional boundaries must be carefully delineated. We safeguard separation, as well as pluralism, in large part, because we assume the church to be groping toward hegemonic establishment. Similarly, we insist that the state should respect individual rights, because we assume the state to be inherently disposed toward aggrandizement at the expense of personal liberty.
