Myriam Hunter-Henin:
Religion, Religious Freedom and Politics: from normative competition to democratic collaboration
The relationships between religion and politics have often been conceived in terms of normative competition, each entity asserting normative sovereignty within its own sphere, with law assigned the task of delineating the limits between each respective sphere. This lecture will argue that this framing of the tensions between religion and politics has had harmful implications for current controversies opposing religious freedom claims and competing rights. Instead, the lecture will offer a new framework for thinking about religion, religious freedom and politics. Shifting the focus from religion to religious interests, I will submit that religious interests and politics would be better thought of as contributing, in a dialogical relationship, to the overall democratic framework.