Religion in Pelaxia

Religion in Pelaxia is mostly Roman Catholic, with 69.9% of the population belonging to the Roman Catholic Church of Pelaxia in 2018. Judaism is the next largest religion  at 3.3%. The unaffiliated make up 17.4% of the population. Islam is followed by 3.0% of the population.

A bill passed in 2016 and intended to effectively make religious institutions in Pelaxia taxable by the government. This resolution was later found to be unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court in 2017.

The Federal Republic is based on the principle of laicism enforced by the 1880s laws and the 1957 Constitution that establishes a “semi-separated” church-state relation, where the state pays a fraction of the Catholic Church salaries still to this day.

Antiquity

The cognati peoples worshipped various deities in a tribal manner, representing their connection to elements of nature and their surroundings. These deities could be representations of the wind, trees, horses, pigs, and even jaguars.

Many of these deities did not have the status of gods to whom prayers were offered; rather, they represented the fusion of mystical elements with material reality. For example, Ginrano, a mythological figure half-jaguar and half-man, symbolized the strength of nature and the dangers of the jungle. Its characteristic was ambivalent, similar to many deities, for which there is no recorded moral or ethical quality. Instead, they were invoked circumstantially.

Caphirian Age

During the Age of Conquest of Caphiria, they brought their religious practices to the valley, which were practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des ("I give that you might give"). Religion depended on knowledge and the correct practice of prayer, rites, and sacrifices, not on faith or dogma, although Caphirian literature preserves learned speculation on the nature of the divine and its relation to human affairs.

The Caphirians viewed religion as a form of social order and expanded their practices to the different provinces of the empire, often intermingling with local deities and practices.

One of these festivities that remains to this day, though greatly secularized over the centuries, is the Festival of the Sun, which has become a carnival and party tradition in modern and contemporary Pelaxia. The festival can be traced back to the Ludi Caphirianus, which consisted of games held in September.

During the expulsion of the Caphirians by the Kosalis, the latter converted to Christianity under the reign of Evaristo, adopting a new religion imparted from the high feudal spheres.

This period was marked by the greatest syncretism by the Catholic Church of Pelaxia, absorbing a large number of dates, festivals, and even traditions under the auspices of Christianity. One of these figures was Ginrano himself, who was depicted in many paintings and codices as a demonic figure, a divine punishment resulting from incest or adultery between couples.

Christianity introduced a bureaucratic structure to religiosity that had not been seen in the periods of antiquity or during the Caphirian period. This bureaucratic structure intertwined with the feudal government structure of the time and would even be foundational during the 19th century for the main modern political movement of the Federal Republic.

Kingdom of Pelaxia

During the 17th century, the most significant political change in Pelaxian history was driven by a religious upheaval known as the Great Schism. This event sparked an independence movement throughout the entire Pelaxian valley, including the Isurian regions. The movement gradually expanded, eventually liberating the province of Cartadania from the yoke of Caphiria.

The period that followed, known as the Carto-Pelaxian Commonwealth, saw the temporary persecution of Caphirian fundamentalists, who were largely confined to the more eastern provinces.

From the perspective of the schismatic Christianity of Pelaxia, a more humanistic conception of humanity became favorable. This idea was already gaining traction in coffee houses and philosophical circles, aligning with broad liberal and bourgeois movements that had been growing in Pelaxia alongside the new wave of economic and industrial modernization.

This humanism present in the new Pelaxian Christianity reflects a continuity of ideals that had existed for at least a century: it encompasses principles such as universal human dignity and individual freedom, along with the primacy of human happiness as something essential and aligned with the teachings of Jesus.

This vision integrates the New Testament, the theological and cardinal virtues, the necessity of divine grace, and reason. According to its own understanding, Christian humanism, unlike other forms of humanism, integrates the human being in both body and spirit.

It was this vision that, by the end of the 19th century, led to the formation of the Democratic Party, led by Raúl Arsenio Eutimio Vélez.

Pelaxia Moderna

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