Hellyer in The National: The Separation of Church and State Isn’t Always Clean

From January 1, a significant, if relatively unnoticed, event took place in northern Europe. The Kingdom of Norway officially disestablished its state church, leaving the continent of Europe with eight state churches in 2017.

Shortly before that, Huston Smith, a don of western religious studies and a very universalist academic in terms of religion and religious truth, died in the United States. His universalism was one model in the realm of engaging with religion. The Norwegian disestablishment – in policy terms rather than in academic terms – is another model entirely. At a time when religion continues to play a large and controversial role in international affairs, both in the West and in the Arab world, the questions that both models raise are not about to disappear.

The opening of the article. The full text is at The National.