Religion, Law, and Democracy: Selected Writings

Freedom in Religion, Freedom in the State: Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde on Religion, Law, and Democracy, Mirjam Künkler
Part I: Catholic Church and Political Order
Böckenförde on the relation of the Catholic Church and Christians to democracy and authoritarianism, Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein
I:The Ethos of Modern Democracy and the Church [1957]
II:German Catholicism in 1933: A Critical Examination [1961]
III:Types of Christian Worldly Conduct during the Nazi-Regime [1965]
IV:Religious Freedom Between the Conflicting Demands of Church and State [1964-79]
Part II: State and Secularity
Böckenförde on the Secular State and Secular Law, Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein
V:The Rise of the State as a Process of Secularization [1967]
VI:The Fundamental Right of Freedom of Conscience [1969]
VII:Remarks on the Relation between State and Religion in Hegel [1982]
VIII:The Secularized State: Its Character, Justification, and Problems in the Twenty-First Century [2007]
Part III: On the Theology of Law and Political Theory
Böckenförde on the Relationship Between Theology, Law and Political Theory, Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein
IX:Political Theory and Political Theology: Comments on their reciprocal relationship [1981]
X:Reflections on a Theology of Modern Secular Law [1999]
XI:A Christian in the Office of Constitutional Judge [1999]
XII:On the Authority of Papal Encyclicals: the Example of Pronouncements on Religious Freedom [2005]
Part IV: Basic Norms and the Principle of Human Dignity
Böckenförde on the Right to Life, Human Dignity, and its Meta-positive Foundations, Mirjam Künkler and Tine Stein
XIII:Abolition of § 218 of the Criminal Code? Reflections on the Current debate about the prohibition of abortion under German Criminal Law [1971]
XIV:Human Dignity as a Normative Principle: Fundamental Rights in the Bioethics Debate [2003]
XV:Will Human Dignity Remain Inviolable? [2004]
Part V: Böckenförde in Context
XVI:Biographical Interview with Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde [2011], Dieter Gosewinkel

Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde was a Professor emeritus of Public Law at the University of Freiburg. He is one of the best-known and most influential German legal scholars in the post-war period. From 1983-1996 he served as Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. In the 1960s, Böckenförde was one of the founders of the journal Der Staat - Zeitschrift für Staatslehre, Öffentliches Recht und Verfassungsgeschichte. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party and served as a long-time legal advisor to it.