State religion
A state religion (also called an official religion, established church or state church) is a religious group or creed officially accepted by the state.
The term state church is used in context with Christianity, and is sometimes used for a specific national branch of Christianity.
Christian countries[edit]
The following states recognize some form of Christianity as their state or official religion (by denomination):
Roman Catholic[edit]
Jurisdictions which recognize Roman Catholicism as their state or official religion:
- Costa Rica
- Malta
- Monaco
- El Salvador
- Liechtenstein
- Vatican City (Theocracy)
- Some cantons of Switzerland (state religion):
- Appenzell Innerrhoden (declared "religion of the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden")
- Aargau
- Basel-Country
- Bern
- Glarus
- Graubünden
- Nidwalden
- Schwyz
- Thurgau
- Uri
Old Catholic[edit]
Jurisdictions which recognize an Old Catholic church as their state religion:
Eastern Orthodox[edit]
Jurisdictions which recognize one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches as their state religion:
Protestant[edit]
Anglican[edit]
- England (Church of England) established by law; plus, unestablished, the world-wide Anglican Communion
Lutheran[edit]
- Denmark (Church of Denmark)
- Iceland (Church of Iceland)
- Finland (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland)
Presbyterian[edit]
- Scotland (Church of Scotland) established by law
- Scotland assorted Free Presbyterian churches, unestablished.
Reformed[edit]
Jurisdictions which recognize a Reformed church as their state religion:
Other Christian[edit]
Islamic countries[edit]
Countries which recognize Islam as their official religion:
- Afghanistan (State religion)
- Algeria (State religion)
- Bahrain (State religion)
- Bangladesh (State religion)
- Brunei (State religion)
- Egypt (State religion)
- Iran (State religion)
- Iraq (State religion)
- Jordan (State religion)
- Kuwait (State religion)
- Libya (State religion)
- Malaysia (State religion)
- Maldives (State religion)
- Mauritania (State religion)
- Morocco
- Oman (State religion)
- Pakistan (State religion)
- Qatar (State religion)
- Saudi Arabia (Religion of the Kingdom)
- Somalia
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates (Religion of the Emirates)
- Yemen
Sunni Islam[edit]
- Algeria
- Malaysia
- Maldives (as state religion)
- Pakistan (as national-sanctioned religion)
- Saudi Arabia (as state-sanctioned religion)
- Somalia (as State Religion)
- Bangladesh (as state religion)
Shi'a Islam[edit]
Buddhist countries[edit]
Governments which recognize Buddhism as their official religion:
- Bhutan (Drukpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism)
- Cambodia (Theravada Buddhism)
- Laos (Theravada Buddhism)
- Kalmykia, a republic within the Russian Federation (Tibetan Buddhism - sole Buddhist entity in Europe)[1]
- Thailand (Theravada Buddhism)
- Tibet Government in Exile (Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism)
- Myanmar - written in the 1974 constitution
- Sri Lanka (Theravada Buddhism)
Hindu countries[edit]
There are no Hindu countries presently, all Hindu majority countries are secular, with Hinduism not listed as the state religion. Nepal was the world's only kingdom state with Hindu monarch, but the Constitution of Nepal 2015 constitution clearly states it is a secular country. Nepal also declared cow as national animal with advanced animal protection rights such as cats and dogs, cow slaughter is also forbidden.
Others[edit]
- Israel is defined in several of its laws as a Democratic Jewish state, but has no state or official religion, "Jewish" being treated as a nationality. In other countries the term "Jewish" means either adhering to the Jewish religion (Judaism), or a Jew by descent (inheritance) or both.
Ancient state religions[edit]
Egypt and Sumer[edit]
The concept of state religions was known as long ago as the empires of Egypt and Sumer, when every city state or people had its own god or gods.
Persian empire[edit]
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Sassanid dynasty which lasted from 226 until 651.
Greek city-states[edit]
Many of the Greek city-states also had a 'god' or 'goddess' associated with that city.
Roman Religion and Christianity[edit]
When in Rome, the office of Pontifex Maximus was reserved for the emperor, failure to worship him as a god was sometimes punished by death, as the Roman government sought to link emperor worship with loyalty to the Empire. Many Christians and Jews were persecuted, because it was against their beliefs to worship the emperor.
Catholic Christianity, as opposed to Arianism and other heretical and schismatic groups, was declared to be the state religion of the Roman Empire on February 27, 380[2] by the decree De Fide Catolica of Emperor Theodosius I.[3]
Han Dynasty Confucianism and Sui Dynasty Buddhism[edit]
In China, the Han Dynasty (206 BC—220 AD) advocated Confucianism as the de facto state religion, establishing tests based on Confucian texts as an entrance requirement into government service.
States without any state religion[edit]
These states do not profess any state religion. Countries which officially decline to establish any religion include:
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Canada
- Chile
- People's Republic of China (China)
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
- East Timor
- France
- India
- Ireland
- Japan
- Kenya
- Lithuania
- Mexico
- Nepal
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nigeria
- Philippines
- Portugal
- Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Romania
- Singapore
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United States of America
Established churches and former state churches in Europe[edit]
^Note 1: In 1967, the Albanian government made atheism the "state religion". This designation remained in effect until 1991.
^Note 2: Finland's State Church was the Church of Sweden until 1809.
^Note 3: In France the Concordat of 1801 made the Roman Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran churches state-sponsored religions, as well as Judaism.
^Note 4: In Hungary the constitutional laws of 1848 declared five established churches on equal status: the Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Unitarian Church. In 1868 the law was ratified again after the Ausgleich. In 1895 Judaism was also recognized as the sixth established church. In 1948 every distinction between the different denominations were abolished.
^Note 5: The Church in Wales was split from the Church of England in 1920 by Welsh Church Act 1914; at the same time becoming disestablished.
Former state churches in British North America[edit]
Protestant colonies[edit]
- Plymouth Colony was founded by Separatists.
- Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was founded by Baptists.
- Province of Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers.
Catholic colonies[edit]
- When New France was transferred to Great Britain in 1763, the Roman Catholic Church remained under toleration, but Huguenots were allowed entrance where they had formerly been banned from settlement by Parisian authorities.
- Province of Maryland was founded by Irish Catholics in a state known as recusancy, but was stripped of this independence during the English Civil War by Roundheads—much as it was in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
- Spanish Florida was ceded to the Great Britain in 1763, the British divided Florida into two colonies. Both East and West Florida continued a policy of toleration for the Catholic Residents.
| Colony | Denomination | Disestablished1 |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | Congregational | 1818 |
| Georgia | Church of England | 17892 |
| Massachusetts | Congregational | 17803 |
| New Brunswick | Church of England | |
| New Hampshire | Congregational | 17904 |
| Newfoundland | Church of England | |
| North Carolina | Church of England | 17765 |
| Nova Scotia | Church of England | 1850 |
| Prince Edward Island | Church of England | |
| South Carolina | Church of England | 1790 |
| Upper Canada | Church of England | 1854 |
| West Florida | Church of England | N/A6 |
| East Florida | Church of England | N/A7 |
| Virginia | Church of England | 1786 |
| West Indies | Church of England | 1868 |
^Note 1: In several colonies, the establishment ceased to exist in practice at the Revolution, about 1776[citation needed]; this is the date of legal abolition.
^Note 2: in 1789 the Georgia Constitution was amended as follows: "Article IV. Section 10. No person within this state shall, upon any pretense, be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshipping God in any manner agreeable to his own conscience, nor be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith and judgment; nor shall he ever be obliged to pay tithes, taxes, or any other rate, for the building or repairing any place of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes to be right, or hath voluntarily engaged. To do. No one religious society shall ever be established in this state, in preference to another; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account of his religious principles."
^Note 3: From 1780 Massachusetts had a system which required every man to belong to a church, and permitted each church to tax its members, and did not require that it be a Congregational church. This was objected to, as in practice establishing the Congregational Church, and was abolished in 1833.
^Note 4: Until 1877 the New Hampshire Constitution required members of the State legislature to be of the Protestant religion.
^Note 5: The North Carolina Constitution of 1776 disestablished the Anglican church, but until 1835 the NC Constitution allowed only Protestants to hold public office. From 1835 to 1876 it allowed allowed only Christians (including Catholics) to hold public office. Article VI, Section 8 of the current NC Constitution forbids only atheists from holding public office.[4] Such clauses were held by the United States Supreme Court to be unenforceable in the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, when the court ruled unanimously that such clauses constituted a religious test incompatible with First and Fourteenth Amendment protections.
^Note 6: Religious Tolerance for Catholics with an Established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was lost to Spain in 1781.
^Note 7: Religious tolerance for Catholics with an established Church of England were policy in the former Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida while under British rule. East Florida was returned to Spain in 1783.
State of Deseret[edit]
The State of Deseret was a provisional state of the United States, proposed in 1849 by Mormon settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years.[5]
Related pages[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Sri Lanka Guardian". Archived from the original on 2017-05-01. Retrieved 2016-11-29. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Theodosian Code". THE LATIN LIBRARY at Ad Fontes Academy. Ad Fontes Academy. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
- ↑ Halsall, Paul (June 1997). "Theodosian Code XVI.i.2". Medieval Sourcebook: Banning of Other Religions. Fordham University. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
- ↑
"Article VI of the North Carolina state constitition". Archived from the original on 2009-01-17. Retrieved 2007-03-25. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Struggle For Statehood[permanent dead link] Edward Leo Lyman, Utah History Encyclopedia
Other websites[edit]
- McConnell, Michael W. (April 2003). "Establishment and Disestablishment at the Founding, Part I: Establishment of Religion". William and Mary Law Review, Provided by Questia.com. 44 (5): 2105. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2006-11-23. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Date and year (link)
