Official religion in the context of "Cult"

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⭐ Core Definition: Official religion

A state religion (also called official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as a confessional state), while not a secular state, is not necessarily a theocracy. State religions are subject to advantageous treatment by official or government-sanctioned establishments of them, ranging from incentivising citizens to recognise and practice them through government endorsement to having public spending on the maintenance of religious property and clergy be unrestricted, but the state does not need to be under the legislative control of the clergy as it would be in a theocracy. Generally, these religions have more rights and fewer restrictions in the country than other religions in a country.

Official religions have been known throughout human history in almost all types of cultures, reaching into the Ancient Near East and prehistory. The relation of religious cult and the state was discussed by the ancient Latin scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, under the term of theologia civilis (lit.'civic theology'). The first state-sponsored Christian denomination was the Armenian Apostolic Church, established in 301 CE. In Christianity, as the term church is typically applied to a place of worship for Christians or organizations incorporating such ones, the term state church is associated with Christianity as sanctioned by the government, historically the state church of the Roman Empire in the last centuries of the Empire's existence, and is sometimes used to denote a specific modern national branch of Christianity. Closely related to state churches are ecclesiae, which are similar but carry a more minor connotation.

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Official religion in the context of Secularism in Turkey

In Turkey, secularism or laicism (see laïcité) was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.

Nine years after its introduction, laïcité was explicitly stated in the second article of the then Turkish constitution on 5 February 1937. The current Constitution of 1982 neither recognizes an official religion nor promotes any.

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Official religion in the context of Christian state

A Christian state is a country that recognizes a form of Christianity as its official religion and often has a state church (also called an established church), which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government.

Historically, the nations of Armenia, Aksum, Makuria, and the Holy Roman Empire have declared themselves as Christian states, as well as the Roman Empire and its continuation the Byzantine Empire, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire, and the Frankish Empire, the Belgian colonial empire, the French empire.

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Official religion in the context of Religion in Albania

Albania is a secular and religiously diverse country with no official religion and thus, freedom of religion, belief and conscience are guaranteed under the country's constitution. In the 2023 census, Islam is the most common religion in Albania, followed by around 51% of the total population, mostly Sunni Muslims and a minority of Bektashians. Christianity is the second-largest religion with a population of 16%, including Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Evangelicals. However, religiosity is generally low in Albania and irreligious (Atheists and the other non-religious) were 17%. The other 16% were undeclared.

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Official religion in the context of Zoroastrianism in Pakistan

The official religion of Pakistan is Islam, as enshrined by Article 2 of the Constitution, and is practised by an overwhelming majority of 96.35% of the country's population. The remaining 3.65% practice Hinduism, Christianity, Ahmadiyya (considered a non-Muslim group as per the Pakistani constitution), Sikhism, Zoroastrianism and other religions.

Muslims comprise a number of sects: the majority practice Sunni Islam (estimated at 85-90%), while a minority practice Shia Islam (estimated at 10-15%). Most Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, which is represented by the Barelvi and Deobandi traditions. However, the Ahl-i Hadith movement has also gained popularity together with Wahhabi influence from the Middle East. The majority of Pakistani Shia Muslims belong to the Twelver Islamic law school, with significant minority groups who practice Ismailism, which is composed of Nizari (Aga Khanis), Mustaali, Dawoodi Bohra, Sulaymani, and others.

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Official religion in the context of Buddhism in Sri Lanka

Theravada Buddhism is the largest and official religion of Sri Lanka, practiced by 70.1% of the population as of 2012. Practitioners of Sri Lankan Buddhism can be found amongst the majority Sinhalese population as well as among the minority ethnic groups, most notably the Sri Lankan Chinese. Sri Lankan Buddhists share many similarities with Southeast Asian Buddhists, specifically Thai Buddhists and Burmese Buddhists due to traditional and cultural exchange. Sri Lanka is one of only five countries in the world with a Theravada Buddhist majority, and others are Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Buddhism has been declared as the state religion under Article 9 of the Sri Lankan Constitution which can be traced back to an attempt to bring the status of Buddhism back to the status it enjoyed prior to the Dutch and British colonial eras. Sri Lanka is one of the oldest traditionally Buddhist countries.

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