Citation

Gregersen NH. Dialog 2009; 48(1): 79-96.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Wiley Periodicals and Dialog Inc., Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1540-6385.2009.00433.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The international crisis following the publication of 12 Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (September 30, 2005) raises the general question of how to exercise the freedom of expression in relation to religious taboos. After briefly reviewing the Cartoon Crisis from September 2005 to the bombings on the Danish Ambassay in Pakistan in June 2008, the article addresses Lutheran resources for coping with secularisation and desecularisation, in particular as regards the taboos that persist as a part of religious and humanistic values. The thesis is that the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms has given rise to two models of interpretation that have both been historically active. The doctrine of the two regiments has been interpreted both as a ‘liberalist’ argument for a principled separation of religion and politics, and as a ‘social-conservative’ (later Social Democratic) argument for the view that the state should take care of its citizens' welfare through education, the legal system and social services. In today's global and multi-religious world, this leads us to ask the question to what extent a welfare society, for the sake of peace and social order, should, or should not, protect religious sensitivities. Should religious communities always be kept out of public life, or can they be recognised as non-governmental organizations in civil society, hence as potential partners for the state?