ABSTRACT

Freedom of religion in the democratic, pluralistic polities is what in pre-modern times was called libertas ecclesiae or ‘the liberty of the Church’. Freedom of religion is thus reduced to freedom from religion. Moreover, it could be said that the religion secularists want to be free from is for them a phantom. The radical secularist interpretation of the First Amendment would be more convincing, however, if the clause had read, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting religion.’ While proponents of natural theology and natural law can, arguably, also be proponents of revealed theology and revealed commandments, this connection of the two commitments is not necessary – at least philosophically speaking. The concept of freedom of conscience enunciated in the Charter, making it different from freedom of religion per se, is doubt influenced by Article 18 of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 that reads: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.’