Odwołania do chrześcijaństwa w konstytucjach współczesnych państw
References to Christianity in constitutions of contemporary states

Summary/Abstract: The present paper offers a quantitative and qualitative analysis of constitutional references to Christianity. An examination of binding basic laws of individual states allowed the authors to determine the scale of references to Christianity and to systematize and typologize these references. As assumed in the study, “references to Christianity” include both direct mentions of Christian principles, values or heritage as well as implicit ones, i.e., references to God understood in accordance with monotheistic Trinitarianism and to individual Christian denominations, their followers and churches. Due to the fact that Christianity not only has a religious, but also a historical and cultural dimension, its references in the constitutions, in principle, do not deny the ideological impartiality of public authorities or lead to confessionalisation of the state. Neither do they violate the rights of followers of other religions and non-believers. It is an exaggeration to perceive constitutional references to Christianity by non-Christians as allegedly socially alienating and excluding. The constitutional legislator deciding to distinguish Christianity in a constitution is expected to be guided by the will of the sovereign. However, incorporating references to Christianity into basic laws should not serve as a tool of social engineering for proselytic purposes.

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