Religious freedom and constitutional elements at the social-political integration process : a theoretical-methodological approach

• Autor(a) principal: Souza, Rodrigo Lobato Oliveira de
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/62101
• topic: Direito constitucional; Direitos fundamentais; Liberdade religiosa

This article discusses religious freedom’s capacity as a fundamental right to actively promote a process of social-political integration within democratic-pluralistic societies. as normally perceived, religion, although a powerful indispensable element on the development of individual personality and on promoting social-cultural advancements, is responsible for multiple social conflicts generally related to issues of intolerance, discrimination and social stigmatization. The multiple and different forms of exercising religious freedom are normally comprehended as the foundations of those social conflicts. Supposedly, the free movement of diverse theological-cultural claims would lead to social exclusion and stigmatization, as conflicting claims would clash against each other. Conversely, what the present article intends to demonstrate is that this common vision is actually a result of a misleading comprehension of religious freedom’s theoretical-dogmatic basis. As a fundamental right, religious freedom must be taken seriously, especially in what it concerns its constitutional theoretical-methodological framework. once religious freedom’s core theoretical-dogmatic elements are adequately comprehended and respected, and also once they are functioning alongside other indispensable elements of liberal constitutionalism, religious freedom can be turned into an active factor for the social-political integration process, avoiding issues of social isolation, discrimination, exclusion and stigmatization, and yet functioning as a cross-cultural dialogue promoting factor.