How The Covid-19 Pandemic Put Belgian Secularism To The Test
(2026) Invisible Secularism : Quebec and International Perspectives — 1-16, accepted/in-press
Files
LLChristians laicite invisible koussens livre laicité invisible VERSION 20 mai 26 -MANUSCRIT-LAÏCITÉ-PETER-LANG ENG.pdf
Embargo Access until 2027-06-09 - Adobe PDF
- 359.38 KB
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- The COVID-19 health crisis was also a time of crisis for law making. Among the various legal challenges, several uncertainties pointed to a form of “invisible secularism.” On a first hand, Belgian crisis legislation forgot humanist organizations when it established some special status for religious organizations, even though they were all of them recognized by the State on a equal footing (procedural invisibility). At a first glance, the way public authorities perceived religious gatherings seemed somewhat stereotypical about the special risks posed by a suspected irrationality of religious feelings and behaviors : showing sometimes an invisible very secularist bias. Finally, at a very late stage, public authorities placed religions and non-denominational secularist groups on an equal footing, not only about an equal assessment of risks but also on a procedural way by involving all of them in consultation mechanisms.
- Affiliations
Citations
Christians, L.-L. (2026). How The Covid-19 Pandemic Put Belgian Secularism To The Test. In D. Koussens and S. Lebel-Grenier (ed.), Invisible Secularism : Quebec and International Perspectives (1 ed., pp. 1-16). Peter Lang. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/276979