Religious Freedom & Religious Persecution

This course seeks to introduce students to the realities and complexities of freedom of religion or belief on local and international levels and to theological considerations of religious persecution. The freedom to organize your life in accordance with personal conscience and/or beliefs is a fundamental human right and of crucial importance not only to the individual, but also to community life and healthy and free societies. This right to freedom of religion or belief can easily succumb to power dynamics within any given society – be it religious or secular, democratic or authoritarian. Religious communities are often fierce defenders of religious freedom for (fellow) believers and/or themselves. At the same time, they are very aware of religious persecution and even attribute spiritual value to suffering for one’s faith. Situated at the intersection of religious studies, missiology and human rights discourses, this course engages with key questions related to religious freedom and persecution from multidisciplinary perspectives.

PROF. DR. JELLE CREEMERS is the Academic Dean, as well as Professor and Department Chair of Religious Studies and Missiology at ETF Leuven.

DR. TATIANA KOPALEISHVILI is Affiliated researcher in Religious Studies and Missiology at ETF Leuven