Confessional state

Short description: State which officially practices a particular religion

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A confessional state is a state which officially recognises and practices a particular religion, usually accompanied by a public cultus, and at least encourages its citizens to do likewise.

Over human history, many states have been confessional states. This is especially true in countries where Christianity, Islam and Buddhism were the religions of the state. The idea of religious pluralism in modern terms is relatively recent[citation needed], and until the beginning of the 20th century, many if not most nations had state religions enshrined in their respective constitutions or by decree of the monarch, even if other religions were permitted to practice.

However, there are many examples of large multicultural empires that have existed throughout time where the religion of the state was not imposed on subjected regions. For instance, the Mongol Empire, where Tengrism was the religion of the court, but not imposed on those ruled by the Mongols, the Achaemenid Empire and the Roman Empire before Constantine I, where regional clergies and practices were allowed to dominate as long as offerings were made to Roman Gods and tribute paid to Rome.

Religious minorities are accorded differing degrees of tolerance under confessional states; adherents may or may not have a set of legal rights, and these rights may not be accessible in practice. For example, in medieval Europe Jewish people suffered various degrees of official and unofficial discrimination; during the same period in Islamic states, non-Muslims or dhimmi were legally inferior[citation needed] to Muslims but accorded certain protections.

In Europe, the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia institutionalized the principle of cuius regio, eius religio—that rulers of a state had the right to determine the religion of its subjects. This was in an effort to curb the religious warfare that had wracked Europe after the Protestant Reformation.

## Contents

* 1 United States
* 2 Modern times
* 3 Relation to theocracy
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## United States

Several of the Thirteen Colonies were confessional states, although of different denominations, before the American Revolution; Connecticut remained one until 1818. Other American states required each town or individual to support some religious body, without the state deciding which one; but this was also abolished, the last instance being Massachusetts , which restricted the obligation in 1821 and ended it in 1843.

## Modern times

The confessional state is largely gone in the Western World, although in the Middle East, the confessional state still exists, particularly in Lebanon. The form of government known as the Islamic republic is still quite common in the area as well. A number of modern countries have state religions; they usually also allow freedom of religion. An example of such a state is Costa Rica, a Catholic confessional state and Russia is an Orthodox Confesional State.

## Relation to theocracy

The Christian publication Patheos counters accusations that Poland is a theocracy by stating that it is in fact a Confessional State.[1] Other writers view the notion of a Catholic Confessional State as a rhetorical maneuver to avoid calling certain states and policies theocratic.[2]

## See also

* Confessionalism
* Separation of church and state
* Elite religion
* Divine rule
* State religion

## References

1. ↑ "Why Speak of Theocracy in Poland When Confessional States Make up the Secular West?". 2016-06-10. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/cosmostheinlost/2016/06/10/why-speak-of-theocracy-in-poland-when-confessional-states-make-up-the-secular-west/.
2. ↑ "Opinion: You can't force the 'traditional moral order' on the public". Washington Post. 2019-10-18. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/you-cant-force-the-traditional-moral-order-on-the-public/2019/10/18/e6a91eca-f0f0-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html.

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Religion in politics

General concepts

* Anti-clericalism
* Anticlericalism and Freemasonry
* Caesaropapism
* Clericalism
* Clerical fascism
* Confessionalism
* Divine rule
* Engaged Spirituality
* Feminist theology
* Thealogy
* Womanist theology
* Identity politics
* Political religion
* Progressive Reconstructionism
* Religious anarchism
* Religious anti-Masonry
* Religious anti-Zionism
* Religious communism
* Religious humanism
* Religious law
* Religious nationalism
* Religious pacifism
* Religion and peacebuilding
* Religious police
* Religious rejection of politics
* Religious segregation
* Religious separatism
* Religious socialism
* Religious views on same-sex marriage
* Secularism
* Secular religion
* Separation of church and state
* Spiritual left
* State atheism
* State religion
* Theocracy
* Theonomy

Christianity and politics

* Blaine Amendment
* Christian anarchism
* Christian anti-communism
* Christian anti-Masonry
* Papal ban
* Christian anti-Zionism
* Christian communism
* Christian corporatism
* Christian democracy
* Christian egalitarianism
* Christian environmentalism
* Evangelical environmentalism
* Christian fascism
* German Christians
* National Catholicism
* Positive Christianity
* Protestant Reich Church
* Christian feminism
* Mormon feminism
* Christian humanism
* Christian law
* Christian left
* Evangelical left
* Christian libertarianism
* Christian pacifism
* Christian peacemaking
* Christian reconstructionism
* Christian republic
* Christian right
* Christian socialism
* In Utah
* Christian state
* Christian Zionism
* Cisalpinism
* Dominion Theology
* Febronianism
* Gallicanism
* Liberation theology
* Papal state
* Pillarisation
* Political Catholicism
* Relations between the Catholic Church and the state
* In Argentina
* Sphere sovereignty
* Subsidiarity
* Temporal power
* Theodemocracy
* Ultramontanism
* Neo-ultramontanism

Islam and politics

* Hui pan-nationalism
* Human Rights in Islam
* Imamate
* Islamic anarchism
* Islamic anti-Masonry
* Islamic anti-Zionism
* Islamic democracy
* Islamic fascism
* Islamic feminism
* Sharia law
* by country
* Islamic nationalism
* In Pakistan
* In South Asia
* Islamic pacifism
* Islamic republic
* Islamic socialism
* Islamic state
* Islamic Zionism
* Islamism
* Criticism
* Islamization
* Khilafat
* Petro-Islam
* Political quietism
* Taliban
* Talibanization
* Two-nation theory

Judaism and politics

* Halachic state
* Jewish anarchism
* Jewish anti-Zionism
* Haredim
* Jewish Autonomism
* Jewish democracy
* Jewish fascism
* Kahanism
* Revisionist Maximalism
* Jewish feminism
* Jewish law
* Jewish left
* Jewish pacifism
* Jewish political movements
* Jewish right
* Jewish secularism
* Jewish socialism
* Bundism
* Humanistic Judaism
* Poale Zion
* Religious Zionism
* World Agudath Israel

Hinduism and politics

* Akhand Bharat
* Hindu feminism
* Gandhism
* Hindu law
* Hindu modernism
* Hindu nationalism
* Hindutva
* Hindu Rashtra
* Panun Kashmir
* Bangabhumi
* Hindu revolution
* Hindu revivalism
* Hindu environmentalism
* Integral humanism
* Indigenous Aryans
* Rama Rajya
* Saffronisation
* Shuddhi
* Uniform civil code

Buddhism and politics

* Buddhists anti-communism
* Buddhist feminism
* Buddhist law
* Buddhist modernism
* Buddhist nationalism
* 969 Movement
* Nichirenism
* Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism
* Buddhist socialism
* Engaged Buddhism
* Humanistic Buddhism
* Secular Buddhism

Other

* American civil religion
* Imperial cult
* Ancient Rome
* Gottgläubig
* Khalistan movement
* Neopaganist feminism
* Religious aspects of Nazism
* Creativity (religion)
* Nazi Satanism
* Personality cult
* State Shinto

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