Christian state

"Christian country" redirects here. For the music genre, see Christian country music.
"Christian Nation" redirects here. For the novel by Frederic Rich, see Christian Nation (novel).
Countries with Christianity as their state religion are in blue.
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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),[1] which is a Christian denomination that supports the government and is supported by the government.[2]

Historically, the nations of Aksum, Armenia,[3][4] 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.[5][6]

Today, several nations officially identify themselves as Christian states or have state churches. These countries include Argentina, Armenia, Costa Rica, El Salvador,[7] Denmark (incl. Greenland and the Faroes),[8] England,[9] Georgia,[10] Greece,[11] Hungary,[12] Iceland,[13] Liechtenstein,[14] Malta,[15] Monaco,[16] Norway,[17] Samoa,[18] Serbia,[19] Tonga,[20] Tuvalu,[21] Vatican City,[22] and Zambia.[23] A Christian state stands in contrast to a secular state,[24] an atheist state,[25] or another religious state, such as a Jewish state,[26] or an Islamic state.[27]

  1. ^ Backhouse, Stephen (7 July 2011). Kierkegaard's Critique of Christian Nationalism. Oxford University Press. p. 60. ISBN 9780199604722. ...it is only as an established institution that the Church can fully preserve and promote Christian tradition to the nation. One cannot have a Christian state without a state Church.
  2. ^ Eberle, Edward J. (28 February 2013). Church and State in Western Society: Established Church, Cooperation and Separation. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 6. ISBN 9781409497806. Under the established church approach, the government will assist the state church and likewise the church will assist the government. Religious education is mandated by law to be taught in all schools, public or private.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference MilmanMurdock1887 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference ChingJarzombek2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ashby2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Frucht2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference YakobsonRubinstein2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shadid1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Joppke2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Constitution of Georgia Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine Article 9 (1 & 2) and 73 (1a1)
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jiang2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Hungary's Constitution of 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Melton2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fox2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference MonacoReligion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ "The Constitution of Norway, Article 16 (English translation, published by the Norwegian Parliament)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-08. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wyeth2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Paul Pavlovich. The History of the Serbian Orthodox Church
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fodor1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Temperman2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Erasmus2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jenkins2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Boer, Roland (8 June 2012). Criticism of Earth: On Marx, Engels and Theology. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 168. ISBN 9789004225589. Yet what is intriguing about this argument is that this modern secular state arises from, or is the simultaneous realisation and negation of, the Christian state.
  24. ^ Marx, Karl; McLellan, David (2000). Karl Marx: Selected Writings. Oxford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780198782650. Indeed, it is not the so-called Christian state, that one that recognizes Christianity as its basis, as the state religion, and thus adopts an exclusive attitude to other religions, that is the perfected Christian state, but rather the atheist state, the ...
  25. ^ Burns, J. Patout (1 April 1996). War and Its Discontents: Pacifism and Quietism in the Abrahamic Traditions. Georgetown University Press. p. 92. ISBN 9781589018778. The religious group is confronted by a pagan state, a Jewish state, a Christian state, an Islamic state, or a secular state.
  26. ^ Sjoberg, Laura (1 January 2006). Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq. Lexington Books. p. 24. ISBN 9780739116104. Just as Christian just war theory justified the actions of the Christian state, Islamic jihad theory began with the founding of the Islamic state.