Democracy, Law and Religious Pluralism in Europe ― Secularism and Post-secularism

The book focuses on a topical question: are the old secularist arrangements well-equipped to tackle the challenge of fast-growing religious pluralism? Or should we move to new post-secular arrangements that are fairer and more efficient in dealing with pluralism in Europe?

Offering an interdisciplinary approach that combines political theory and legal analysis, the authors tackle two interrelated facets of this controversial question, a theoretical and a practical one:

• Part 1 explores what post-secularism is and its relation to secularism; and examines whether post-secularism convincingly points towards a paradigm shift in dealing with religious pluralism in liberal democracies. The authors draw on a variety of different approaches to the issue of postsecularism vs secularism – from political-theological to public reason approaches.
• Part 2 teases out the practical consequences of the secularism- postsecularism debate, focussing on case-law with four empirical case studies. It is predominantly focused on a critical analysis on the latest developments of the European jurisprudence with respect to religious pluralism.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political theory, philosophy, religion and politics, European law, human rights, legal theory and socio-legal studies.

Ferran Requejo is Professor of Political Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. He is director of the Research Group on Political Theory and the Research Group of Political Science. His main fields of research are theories of democracy, multicultural societies, federalism, political theory and political liberalism after World War II.

Camil Ungureanu is Lecturer in Political Theory at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Barcelona, Spain.