Religion and Loyalty in a Non-Laic Regime

This paper discusses some critical issues in the management of religion in a non-laic regime, with a special focus on Germany. At the collective level, a non-laic regime delegates public functions to organized religion, which creates the delicate problem of how to deal with religions that are not loyal to the liberal state and its constitutive principles. At the individual level, a non-laic regime is more protective of individual liberties than a laic regime. However, recent integration concerns have moved the German regime toward a stronger focus on shared citizenship, thus mildly constraining religious freedoms.