| Religion-State Relations |
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| Written by fgulen.com | |||||||||
| 2002.01.30 | |||||||||
 Throughout history, the factor of religion was one of the basic issues in state administration, and it was included as a social reality in the area of state order. Human history in both the East and West frequently saw this kind of "theocratic" rule. The influence and trace of this idea can still be found in some totalitarian administrations. Historical experience has shown that theocratic rule has manifested the desires of rulers to tie their power to "divine will."The West's experiments in this framework led thinking minds to find and implement the principle of "laicism." While the idea that "the masses should be ruled by persons chosen with the people's free will and as an open expression of their will" has its roots in the West, today it has been accepted almost everywhere in the world. It is possible to find references toward religion in the constitutions of Western governments. In the 2000's with religion and relations to it becoming more important, it becomes necessary to look at religion-state relations from a historical perspective. Faculty members from 8 countries including Turkey, who met for the first time on May 1-2, 1998 at the Milano University, began an investigative process on this subject under the name "Research Association on Religion-State Relations." Work at this stage is being carried on in the form of symposiums. Their second meeting was organized by our foundation on October 13-18, 1999. The meeting was held in a place that was open to the general public, but where those who closely follow this topic could watch. The subject of Religion-State Relations was separated into groups in specific expertise categories like practices in Catholic Countries, Protestant Countries, Sunni Islam, Shiite Islam and Confucianism. Accordingly, separate sessions were held. At the end, papers that had been prepared from different perspectives were discussed at a general committee and a common text was produced. In view of the fact that, especially in our country, belief and relations connected to it have become more important, our Foundation organized "Abant Platform" meetings in the past two years. This time the subject was planned to be studied from the perspective of the "Western Experience" and the "Historical Perspective," and a foundation for experts in each field to debate this issue was made. Under the coordination of Prof. Niyazi Öktem, faculty member at the Bilgi University, the International Religion-State Relations Symposium was held at the Firat Culture Center in Istanbul.
•Prof. Mehmet S. Aydin (Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Theology) •Prof. Silvio Ferrari (Milano University, Italy) •Prof. Nahum Rakover (President of the Jewish Legal Heritage Association, Israel) •Prof. Jean Duffer (Paris University) •Dr. Ling Pingye (United Front Work Dept. of the CPC Central Committee, China) •Prof. Ivan Iban (Madrid Complutense University, Spain) •Prof. Huseyin Hatemi (Istanbul University) •Prof. Lourens M. du Plessis (Stellenbosch University) •Prof. Gerhard Robbers (Trier University, Germany) •Prof. Jose Antonio (Church Legal Institute/Lima, Peru) •Prof. Serif Mardin (Sabanci University, Istanbul) •Prof. Ahmet Mumcu (Baskent University, Ankara) •Prof. Rik Torfs (Dean of Leuven Catholic University, Belgium) •Prof. Maria Del Defugio Gonzales (Universidad Nacional Autonoma, Mexico) •Prof. Masoud Daher (Lebanon University, Beirut) •Prof. Kenan Gursoy (Galatasaray University, Istanbul) •Prof. A. Temimi (Temimi Foundation President, Tunis) •Dr. Jean François Mayer (Fribourg University, Switzerland) •Prof. Cole Durham (Brigham Young University / Utah, USA) •Emanuel Adamakis (Bishop of Region, Belgium) •Prof. Anatoly Krassikov (European Institute, Social Research Center, Moscow) •Asst. Prof. Sait Baser (Sakarya University) •Asst. Prof. Sadi Kucur (Marmara University, Istanbul)
3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
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| Last Updated ( 2006.06.14 ) |
In the symposium that was held on October 15-18, 1999 in Istanbul, papers were presented by 22 scholars, 18 of which were from other countries. The following are the participants and the titles of their papers: