Alienation and Establishment
Department of Health and Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
Religions 2020, 11(6), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11060282
Received: 11 May 2020 / Revised: 1 June 2020 / Accepted: 3 June 2020 / Published: 9 June 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Is it ever permissible for the state to formally recognize one religion? This article focuses on just one aspect of this complex question. To be specific, a critical examination is conducted of what will be called the alienation argument against establishment, according to which this sort of connection between religion and the state is wrong to the extent that it makes some people feel alienated. Whilst this argument is often dismissed in contemporary academic analyses, considerations of this kind are frequently heard in political commentary and public debate. In this article, the three most important criticisms made of the alienation argument, which are referred to as psychologism, indeterminacy and falsity, are discussed. By arguing that it may be possible to rebut these three objections, at least to some extent, the aim of the article is to mount a partial defence of the alienation argument against religious establishment. Its conclusion is that feelings of alienation should play a significant role in making all-things-considered judgements about the justifiability of particular instances of establishment.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
alienation; religion; the state; establishment; citizenship
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Thompson, S. Alienation and Establishment. Religions 2020, 11, 282.
AMA Style
Thompson S. Alienation and Establishment. Religions. 2020; 11(6):282.
Chicago/Turabian StyleThompson, Simon. 2020. "Alienation and Establishment" Religions 11, no. 6: 282.
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit