Religious citizenship

This short paper raises one side of a pertinent contemporary debate - that religion is still an important influence in politics. Social science errs by imagining this is a transient phenomenon. The post-Enlightenment presumption that secular and sacred realms should and could be isolated, with political activity uncontrolled by scriptural prescription, was probably never feasible and certainly is not now in those countries where religion plays a large role in political and social life. This realisation seems to demand a reconsideration of theories of citizenship and the erstwhile national constitution of rights and obligations. Law and civic belonging will need to be re-constituted according to multi-faith rather than secular principles, even in countries like Australia.