Contemporary liberal democracies formally exclude religious justifications from public policies and political acts. This stems from the setting of religion into the private sphere within these systems, as, it is said, it fails to meet the requirements of universality. The requirements of universality are thought to be met in the public sphere defined by liberal concepts – such as "public reasons" as the exclusive justification for political decisions (John Rawls), or deliberation based on principles of rationality and non-religious language (Jürgen Habermas).

Despite this, liberal democracies do not lack religious motivations and inspirations for proposed or enacted political acts and actions. Less formal, religious justifications are also present in parliamentary and public discussions on issues related to the nature of marriage and family, the content of public education, the scope of protection of human life, and social policy.

In this issue, we would like to examine the specific influence of religion on public policies, attempting to answer the following and related questions: What public projects and policies could we speak of as having been religiously inspired? Which ones can we? What role do churches and religious associations play in developing specific political solutions? What are the religious inspirations for public policies in countries without a tradition of separating religion and politics?

Besides specific issues, we are also interested in more general issues related to the presence of religion in the public sphere. What accounts for, as José Casanova used to say, "the persistent return of religion to the public sphere"? Was Irving Babbitt right in claiming that a thorough examination of a political question will lead us to "a philosophical question, and the philosophical question itself will ultimately prove almost inextricably intertwined with the religious question"? Do liberal democracies artificially separate the religious aspect of humanity from the political aspect? What does, or can it do for the contemporary world, by drawing on religion in the development of public policies?

We invite political scientists and theorists, sociologists, lawyers, philosophers, and other researchers interested in the subject of religious justifications of politics and the place of religion in liberal states to discuss these issues.