Religious Freedom and the Ethos of Democracy in Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde

According to Böckenförde’s interpretation in his famous essay “The Rise of the State as a Process of Secularization” (1967), in the formation of modern statehood religious freedom and, more generally, freedom of conscience played a central role. It was “for love of such freedom” that the modern state set inviolable limits on the exercise of its own coercive force vis-à-vis citizens relying on its protection. Nobody may be forced through the coercive tools of political power to hold true something that they do not believe. This dynamic of freedom is further taken up in Böckenförde’s analysis of church history and theological traditions, as this essay demonstrates. The conception of religious freedom as a right of the human person, contained in the Second Vatican Council declaration Dignitatis Humanae, is a real “Copernican turn.” It represents a true revolution in Catholic interpretation of democracy, public ethos, and natural law, which aims at reconciling modern freedom, democracy, and religion through a revised doctrine of the common good.