<p>Within the context of South Africa&lsquo / s diverging religious, cultural and social backgrounds, new questions on the nature of a multicultural society are raised from the perspective of human rights.&nbsp / The universality and indivisibility of human rights are challenged by this diversity and consequently implies that standards, concepts and structures for implementation have to be reconsidered.&nbsp / International and national standards are being (re)interpreted and attention is not only focused on the contents of the norms but on the limitations imposed thereupon. The debate on whether limits should be set in permitting or accommodating cultural or religious pluralism is becoming extremely relevant. The manner in which these questions are responded to&nbsp / is even more prominent in the light of our history of apartheid which has disregarded respect for religious and cultural diversity. In the scope of this research emphasis will be placed on the&nbsp / right to freedom of religion and in particular the limitation of the right to religion in an attempt to balance conflicting rights and accommodates religious diversity. The right to freedom of religion&nbsp / albeit constitutionally entrenched is subject to reasonable and justifiable limitations. However, no clear guidelines have been formulated on the criteria for limiting the right to freedom of&nbsp / religion. The main aim of this research is to find guiding criteria to facilitate the imposition of limitations on the right to freedom of religion. The limitations of the right to freedom of religion are&nbsp / interrelated with the following research questions: Firstly, the definition afforded to the right to freedom of religion in accordance with national and international standards / secondly, the relationship between culture and religion and any interconnection that exists between these rights. This is followed by the influence of the particular value framework or normative commitments&nbsp / f the judiciary on the interpretation of the right to religion, as well as the relationship between the state and religion. The above issues will be researched both on a national and&nbsp / an international level. The aim is to conduct research that will build on an appreciation of the guidelines that should be employed in ensuring the protection of the right to freedom of religion. To this end comparisons will be drawn with other legal&nbsp / systems, which on the one hand acknowledge the protection of the right to freedom of religion and on the other hand have to find ways in which the right can be balanced in the event of conflict. It is envisaged that the research of the criteria imposed on the limitation of the right to religion both on a national and an international level will assist in suggesting criteria that will influence&nbsp / scholarly debate on the topic. In addition that this debate will allow for the formulation of a transformative approach within the South African context that sanctions the celebration of diversity in all&nbsp / its aspects and in particular the right to freedom of religion.<br /> &nbsp / </p>

Doctor Legum - LLD / Within the context of South Africa‘s diverging religious, cultural and social backgrounds, new questions on the nature of a multicultural society are raised from the perspective of human rights. The universality and indivisibility of human rights are challenged by this diversity and consequently implies that standards, concepts and structures for implementation have to be reconsidered. International and national standards are being (re)interpreted and attention is not only focused on the contents of the norms but on the limitations imposed thereupon. The debate on whether limits should be set in permitting or accommodating cultural or religious pluralism is becoming extremely relevant. The manner in which these questions are responded to is even more prominent in the light of our history of apartheid which has disregarded respect for religious and cultural diversity. In the scope of this research emphasis will be placed on the right to freedom of religion and in particular the limitation of the right to religion in an attempt to balance conflicting rights and accommodates religious diversity. The right to freedom of religion albeit constitutionally entrenched is subject to reasonable and justifiable limitations. However, no clear guidelines have been formulated on the criteria for limiting the right to freedom of religion. The main aim of this research is to find guiding criteria to facilitate the imposition of limitations on the right to freedom of religion. The limitations of the right to freedom of religion are interrelated with the following research questions: Firstly, the definition afforded to the right to freedom of religion in accordance with national and international standards; secondly, the relationship between culture and religion and any interconnection that exists between these rights. This is followed by the influence of the particular value framework or normative commitments f the judiciary on the interpretation of the right to religion, as well as the relationship between the state and religion. The above issues will be researched both on a national and an international level. The aim is to conduct research that will build on an appreciation of the guidelines that should be employed in ensuring the protection of the right to freedom of religion. To this end comparisons will be drawn with other legal systems, which on the one hand acknowledge the protection of the right to freedom of religion and on the other hand have to find ways in which the right can be balanced in the event of conflict. It is envisaged that the research of the criteria imposed on the limitation of the right to religion both on a national and an international level will assist in suggesting criteria that will influence scholarly debate on the topic. In addition that this debate will allow for the formulation of a transformative approach within the South African context that sanctions the celebration of diversity in all its aspects and in particular the right to freedom of religion. / South Africa

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2015-12-03T10:10:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 claudiomano.pdf: 1529033 bytes, checksum: ff8048987cf78c54f94024449693928f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2015-12-03T11:54:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 claudiomano.pdf: 1529033 bytes, checksum: ff8048987cf78c54f94024449693928f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T11:54:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 claudiomano.pdf: 1529033 bytes, checksum: ff8048987cf78c54f94024449693928f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-02 / Ao longo desta dissertação, procuramos identificar, na obra do magistrado francês em pauta, não apenas o uso tácito do conceito de religião civil elaborado por Jean-Jacques Rousseau, de quem Tocqueville foi leitor. Somos do parecer de que uma melhor compreensão do processo da democracia norte-americana, tal como descrita por Aléxis de Tocqueville em sua obra magna, implica descortinarmos, nas entrelinhas dessa obra, a possibilidade de tratá-la com base no conceito de teologia política negativa, que nos permite alcançar os fundamentos da sacralização das instituições democráticas nos Estados Unidos da América. / The aim of this research is to investigate not only the pregnance of Rousseaus´s civil religion concept in Alexis Tocqueville´s analysis of eighteenth century´s United States of America democratic environment. Our main goal is to demonstrate that the concept of negative political theology can help us to go further in the understanding of the fundamentals of the democratic institutions´sacralization process as it is presented in Tocqueville´s De la démocratie en Amérique.

PhD thesis assesses the history of the idea of civil religion and proposes a theoretical interface encompassing all its conceptualisations encountered to date (Rousseau, Bellah, Cristi, Parsons, Luhmann, and Lübbe). Civil religion is understood here as a system of reference points through which society, in the process of self-description, projects into the peripheries its autopoietic realities (of the past, future and eternality) so as to lend stability and import to its existence. By relating to these references, a discourse originates which, being characteristic of the presence of thick and comprehensive meanings, enables the society to communicate about its origins, ends and purpose. In its civil configuration this discourse is pluralist and the involvement of its actors is quite restrained. The model allows for an analysis of the entire serious symbol-based communication of the actors (weighty words, religious symbols, nationalism, conspiracy theories and political correctness) within a single context, as well as of preconditions for such communication. The crisis discourse opened in the USA after 9/11 and aspects of Czech life and institutions are also analysed. In the Czech Republic we identify a minority civil religion discourse, concentrated around semi-secularised references on truth and...

Bibliography: pages 103-109. / This document suggests and then illustrates a neglect in the study of American civil religious ritual. It argues that a primary carrier for American civil religion has been the public school system and that one vehicle used in the task of perpetuating the American identity has been the civil religious ritual of saying the Pledge of Allegiance which most American school children routinely perform at the start of each school day. The methodological approach used in this study of the Pledge ritual is a process analysis formulated by Ronald Grimes which combines the concern of sociology with that of history. Three key questions are dealt with: the process of change (a historical study); the social process effecting the ritual (this centers on the legal conflicts) and the processes which the ritual affect (this concentrates on grassroots responses to the ritual and the power, positive or negative, which it generates. The negative power behind the ritual is a dynamic force which has left its mark in the legislature of the country and in the attitude of the adult population towards the Pledge of Allegiance. This paper identifies and explains four motivators which underlie much of the ritual processing, namely, consensus, conflict, crisis and control. It concludes that the Pledge of Allegiance ritual is a dynamic force which reflects the growth and development of the civil-religious dimension of the American nation.

No description available.

Trata-se, nesta tese, de analisar a relação entre política e religião na obra de Jean- Jacques Rousseau. Como fio condutor das discussões aqui apresentadas, toma-se o conceito de religião civil, definido no capítulo 8 do quarto livro do Contrato Social. A análise busca reconstituir a gênese desse conceito e apontar seus desdobramentos, mostrando em que sentido ele supera o conflito histórico entre poder secular e poder eclesiástico. O aspecto decisivo da pesquisa está em comparar aquilo que Rousseau denomina o essencial da religião com o princípio de sociabilidade verificado em seus escritos políticos, ressalvando-se que tal aproximação não implica em afirmar um fundamento religioso da sociedade. Com este trabalho, pretende-se não apenas compreender um aspecto fundamental do pensamento rousseauniano, mas também refletir acerca da dicotomia entre religião e política no âmbito da filosofia política moderna. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relation between Politics and Religion in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The main theme of the discussion presented here is the concept of civil religion, as defined in the Social Contract (book IV, chapter 8). The analysis seeks to reconstruct the genesis of this concept and point out its consequences, showing in what sense it overcomes the historic conflict between ecclesiastical power and secular power. The decisive aspect of the research is to compare what Rousseau called the essence of religion with the principle of sociability found in his political writings, pointing out that such an approach does not mean to say that society has a religious foundation. With this work, we intend to not only understand a fundamental aspect of Rousseau\'s thought, but also reflect on the dichotomy between Religion and Politics in the context of modern political philosophy.

L'avant-dernier chapitre du Contrat social, intitulé « De la Religion civile », est un texte qui suscite encore de nombreuses polémiques. Jean-Jacques Rousseau semble avoir inventé la notion de « religion civile » pour trouver un moyen de garantir au Souverain la fidélité de chaque citoyen. Mais qu'est-ce précisément que cette « religion civile » ? Par quel moyen peut-elle garantir la fidélité des citoyens ? Pour répondre à ces questions, notre étude a choisi de se concentrer sur les termes employés par Rousseau et qui nous semblent résumer le mieux, d'une manière concrète, l'essentiel de la « religion civile » : les « sentiments de sociabilité ». Pour ce faire, cette étude s'articulera en quatre parties : La Partie I consacrée à la notion de « sentiment » chez Rousseau relève d'une étude « psychologique ». La Partie II relève d'une étude historique : à travers la lecture des œuvres écrites juste avant et après la publication du Contrat social, nous préciserons le contexte historique de la rédaction du chapitre « De la Religion civile ». La Partie III sera consacrée à l'idée de « sociabilité » : nous mesurons la portée de cette idée employée par Rousseau dans un contexte à la fois théorique et polémique. La Partie IV sera consacrée à la lecture du Contrat social lui-même. Nous expliquerons finalement ce que signifient les termes « sentiments de sociabilité » dans cet ouvrage. À travers l'ensemble de ce travail, nous vérifierons la pertinence de la thèse suivante : la « religion civile » chez Rousseau est un dispositif qui déclenche et renforce l'auto-contradiction chez le citoyen. Notre projet précisera donc le point de confluence de la pensée morale, politique et religieuse de Rousseau, qui se trouve dans le Contrat social. / The eighth chapter of the Book IV of the Social Contract, entitled “On the Civil Religion”, still remains problematic. Jean-Jacques Rousseau seems to have invented the concept of “civil religion” to find a way to guarantee the fidelity of each citizen to the Sovereign. But what is this “civil religion” precisely? By what kind of means can this religion guarantee the citizens' fidelity? To solve these problems, we will examine the expression used by Rousseau which seems to summarize precisely the essence of the “civil religion”: the “sentiments of sociability [sentiments de sociabilité].” We will be able to show the importance of this expression only after a detailed exploration of its historical and philosophical context, which can be divided into four Parts: Part I will offer an analysis of the concept of “sentiment” used by Rousseau in the late 1750s. This Part will also show the philosophical background of this concept. Part II will describe the historical background of the writing and the publication of the Social Contract, focusing on the chapter “On the Civil Religion.” Part III will offer a detailed examination of the concept of “sociability:” we will verify the theoretical and polemical aspect of this concept, as it is used by Rousseau. Part IV will offer a detailed analysis and commentary of the chapter “On the Civil Religion” of the Social Contract, weaving together the various threads of the explanations provided in the previous parts. As a whole, this dissertation asserts that religion was a necessary component of Rousseau's political system, insofar as it provided a tool to generate self-contradiction and, as its consequence, moral thought and moral choice in the citizens' conscience.

No description available.

Trata-se, nesta tese, de analisar a relação entre política e religião na obra de Jean- Jacques Rousseau. Como fio condutor das discussões aqui apresentadas, toma-se o conceito de religião civil, definido no capítulo 8 do quarto livro do Contrato Social. A análise busca reconstituir a gênese desse conceito e apontar seus desdobramentos, mostrando em que sentido ele supera o conflito histórico entre poder secular e poder eclesiástico. O aspecto decisivo da pesquisa está em comparar aquilo que Rousseau denomina o essencial da religião com o princípio de sociabilidade verificado em seus escritos políticos, ressalvando-se que tal aproximação não implica em afirmar um fundamento religioso da sociedade. Com este trabalho, pretende-se não apenas compreender um aspecto fundamental do pensamento rousseauniano, mas também refletir acerca da dicotomia entre religião e política no âmbito da filosofia política moderna. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relation between Politics and Religion in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The main theme of the discussion presented here is the concept of civil religion, as defined in the Social Contract (book IV, chapter 8). The analysis seeks to reconstruct the genesis of this concept and point out its consequences, showing in what sense it overcomes the historic conflict between ecclesiastical power and secular power. The decisive aspect of the research is to compare what Rousseau called the essence of religion with the principle of sociability found in his political writings, pointing out that such an approach does not mean to say that society has a religious foundation. With this work, we intend to not only understand a fundamental aspect of Rousseau\'s thought, but also reflect on the dichotomy between Religion and Politics in the context of modern political philosophy.