Constitutional state, sovereignty and religious liberty.

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the articulations between the constitutional state and religious freedom with the core principles that the philosopher Jacques Maritain made about the Church's relationship with the state and the political body. The approach begins by the question of sovereignty, because to Maritain state sovereignty comes from the political entity and shall be exercised only in the face of those who are part of political society, which is not the case of the Church, which is a whole rather than part; Church and state transit in distinct spheres and both are autonomous and independent in their own orders. Is in this perspective, and with these assumptions, that Maritain develops his thinking about the relationship between the Church and the political body and the State, and lays down the general principles governing these relations.