西班牙、新加坡、德国政教关系述评

A Statement and Comment on the State-Religion Relation in Spain, Singapore and Germany

西班牙传统上以天主教为国教,与梵蒂冈关系紧密,政教关系与意大利相当一致。文艺复兴以后,西班牙逐步世俗化,走上了政教分离的道路,他教也不断融入。但即便今天,在西班牙仍是天主教一教独大,法律上虽然有诸教平等的原则,却不难看出天主教在该国中的特殊地位和待遇。如何处理各教之间的关系,它显然有自己的一套作法,值得关注。德国也是传统的天主教国家,但是德国是宗教改革的发源地,还是新教的发祥地。它对政教分离原则的信仰较之其他历史上同为政教合一的国家更坚定、更彻底。仅通过一个案例的详析,即可看出其中奥妙。新加坡则是一个新立小国,一开国即实行严格的政教分离原则,把宗教严格限定为私人事务,人人信仰自由,对一些小宗教还给以适当照顾。因此,各种宗教在此都可以找到自己的位置,宗教与世俗相安无事。其经验耐人品味。选此三国为代表,分析当代各国处理政教问题的立场与方法,以便我们借鉴。

In the history, Spain held Catholicism as its national religion and had a close connection with Vatican, so its state-religion relation was similar to that in Italy. After the Renaissance, Spain was secularized gradually. State and Catholicism began to separate and other reli- gions were integrated in Spain constantly. However, Catholicism still holds an outstanding position even in Spain today. Although there is a legal principle of equality among different religions, it is clear that Catholicism is enjoying a special position and treatment. Obviously, Spain has its own way to deal with the relation among different religions and this deserves notice. Germany was also a catholic country in history, but it was the place where Protestant Reformation broke out firstly and the Protestants originated. Its belief in the principle of separation between state and religion was more steadfast than other countries that used to integrate state and religion in history. Wecan find what＇s behind it by detailed analysis of one example only. Singapore is a young and small country. From the time of its foundation, it follows the principle of separation between state and religion and limits the religious activity to private sphere strictly. It holds religious freedom and helps small religious groups. As a result, every religion can find its position in this country and the religion gets along with the secular sate peacefully. Singapore＇ s experience deserves reflection. We take these countries as typical examples to analyze the methods applied and the standpoints took by modern countries to deal with the relation between state and religion in order to get some inspiration