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Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]

Express Recognition of Deity in Constitutions

Jaclyn L Neo

Content type:
Encyclopedia entries
Product:
Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law [MPECCoL]
Article last updated:
December 2016

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 11 December 2024

Subject(s):
Constitutional mention of God or other deities — Official religion — Christianity — Islam — Status of religious law

General Editors: Rainer Grote, Frauke Lachenmann, Rüdiger Wolfrum
Managing Editor: Martina Mantovani

1. A significant number of countries explicitly or indirectly recognize deity or God in their constitutions. Express recognition may be found in either the preamble and/or the operative text. There is indirect recognition of deity when the constitution refers to a religion, a religious institution, or designates that the head of state must be a member of a specific religion (see also relation of religion to state and society). Such arrangements implicitly associate the constitution with deity, since at their core religions proclaim some belief in the divine. 2. A...
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