This article revisits the documentation related to the
church-state confrontation of 1988 with the aim of showing
how it reflects different views on the prophetic role of the
church in society, as well as different presuppositions
regarding freedom of faith and worship. After a discussion
of the polemical 1988 correspondence between church
leaders and the State President, the second part of the
article attends to the thought of the Italian philosopher
Giorgio Agamben, and more specifically to his provocative
discussion of the notions of “homo sacer” and “state of
exception”. The last part of the article brings aspects of
Agamben’s thought into conversation with the church-state
correspondence of 1988 in order to argue for an
understanding of freedom of religion that encompasses
the freedom of the church to speak prophetically against
any attempt by the state to normalise a state of exception
that threatens vulnerable life.Research Institute for Theology and Religio
