BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam//NONSGML v1.0//EN NAME:PhD defence L.G.F. Lansang METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20260113T134500 DTEND:20260113T151500 DTSTAMP:20260113T134500 UID:2026/phd-defence-l-g-f-lansang@8F96275E-9F55-4B3F-A143-836282E12573 CREATED:20260407T024050 LOCATION:(1st floor) Auditorium, Main building De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam SUMMARY:PhD defence L.G.F. Lansang X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Public and Faithful

In her thesis theologist Liza Lansang-Espinoza introduces the concept of the Christian Imperative to determine how religious m inorities can participate fully in political life without compromisin g their beliefs to advocate for faithful laws.

“I ex amine the role of religious reasons in the public sphere and how citi zens with different beliefs coexist in democratic societies. It invol ves the questions whether Christians should:

Focus prima rily on ‘getting their voices heard’, or should they seek to be h eard as well and influence the legislative process?
Aim for political positions that are fully in line with their own conviction s or try to find a way to compromise, perhaps just to prevent some of the most ‘far off’ legislation, and hence to restrict, moderate, contain ‘bad legislation’?
Use explicit religious lang uage or try to find ‘secular’ language and secular reasons for th eir position, to convince others?
Opt for a ‘majority pos ition’, aiming at shaping generally binding legislation or try to s ecure ‘minority rights’?

Lansang-Espinoza concludes: “The Christian Imperative is conscientious-engagement, rather than withdrawal or assimilation in the public sphere. There should be reli gious freedom in the public sphere, this way religious (or secular) a rguments can strengthen liberal democratic debate through ‘argument ative democracy’. But in official decisions of the state, only publ ic reasons are allowed for the state to remain impartial to different faiths.”

More information on the thesis

DESCRIPTION: In her thesis theologist Liza Lansang-Espinoza in troduces the concept of the Christian Imperative to determine how rel igious minorities can participate fully in political life without com promising their beliefs to advocate for faithful laws. “I examine the role of religious reasons in the public sphere and how ci tizens with different beliefs coexist in democratic societies. It inv olves the questions whether Christians should:

Focus primar ily on ‘getting their voices heard’, or should they seek to be he ard as well and influence the legislative process?
Aim for political positions that are fully in line with their own convictions or try to find a way to compromise, perhaps just to prevent some of the most ‘far off’ legislation, and hence to restrict, moderate, contain ‘bad legislation’?
Use explicit religious langu age or try to find ‘secular’ language and secular reasons for the ir position, to convince others?
Opt for a ‘majority posi tion’, aiming at shaping generally binding legislation or try to se cure ‘minority rights’?

Lansang-Espinoza concludes: “ The Christian Imperative is conscientious-engagement, rather than wit hdrawal or assimilation in the public sphere. There should be religio us freedom in the public sphere, this way religious (or secular) argu ments can strengthen liberal democratic debate through ‘argumentati ve democracy’. But in official decisions of the state, only public reasons are allowed for the state to remain impartial to different fa iths.” More information on the thesis Public and Faithful END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR