The issue of relationship of Christianity to state-organized political power in general, and its contribution to the formation and intellectual foundations of the modern State in particular is raised frequently and - in former times as well as in present age - answered quite differently. The essays by Robert Spaemann, Hans Maier, Josef Isensee, Udo Di Fabio and Wolfgang Huber, as collected in this volume, look into this question from various disciplinary perspectives. Despite different appraisals in detail, they are united by the respective scientifically founded assessment that even the political world in which we live today would be completely different without Christianity.

Prof. Dr. Christian Hillgruber hat seit 2002 einen Lehrstuhls für Öffentliches Recht an der Universität Bonn inne.