Resumo

POESCHE, Jürgen. Are there limits to religious freedom?. Bol. Mex. Der. Comp. [online]. 2023, vol.56, n.167, pp.119-142.  Epub 25-Jun-2024. ISSN 2448-4873.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iij.24484873e.2023.167.18701.

Are there limits to religious freedom? The short answer is yes. The limits derive from the role of religion in the interpretation of the laws of the universe and in cementing ethnic identity. This dual role can be observed in the amalgamation of the ancestral ethnic religion of the Aztecs and the Mesoamerican religious concepts that contained, e.g., ecological knowledge and experience. The Roman Empire adopted a similar albeit not identical approach during the Principate, but said approach was abandoned in favour of religious conformity during the Dominate. As the result of the defeat of the Occident in the Crusades in addition to the wars of religion in the 16th and 17th centuries, religion was manipulated, and attempts have been undertaken to replace religion with ideologies rooted in the Occidental modernity (at times camouflaged as laicity). As religion has contained correctives and controls against violations against the laws of the Universe and have supported ethnic diversity, such manipulations and attempted replacements represent slavery to ideologies instead of freedom thus precluding protection under religious freedom.

Palavras-chave : aztecs; biogeography; ethnicity; philosophy of liberation; Roman Empire; laicity.