Editing Autonomy (section)

==Religion==
In [[Christianity]], autonomy is manifested as a partial self-governance on various levels of church administration. During the history of Christianity, there were two basic types of autonomy. Some important parishes and monasteries have been given special autonomous rights and privileges, and the best known example of monastic autonomy is the famous [[Eastern Orthodox]] monastic community on [[Mount Athos]] in [[Greece]]. On the other hand, administrative autonomy of entire ecclesiastical provinces has throughout history included various degrees of internal self-governance.

In [[ecclesiology]] of [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]es, there is a clear distinction between autonomy and [[autocephaly]], since autocephalous churches have full self-governance and independence, while every autonomous church is subject to some autocephalous church, having a certain degree of internal self-governance. Since every autonomous church had its own historical path to ecclesiastical autonomy, there are significant differences between various autonomous churches in respect of their particular degrees of self-governance. For example, churches that are autonomous can have their highest-ranking bishops, such as an [[archbishop]] or [[metropolitan bishop|metropolitan]], appointed or confirmed by the [[patriarch]] of the [[mother church]] from which it was granted its autonomy, but generally they remain self-governing in many other respects.

In the history of [[Western Christianity]] the question of ecclesiastical autonomy was also one of the most important questions, especially during the first centuries of Christianity, since various archbishops and metropolitans in [[Western Europe]] have often opposed centralizing tendencies of the [[Catholic Church|Church of Rome]].{{sfn|Meyendorff|1989|pp=59–66, 130–139}} {{As of|2019}}, the [[Catholic Church]] comprises 24 autonomous (''[[sui iuris]]'') Churches in communion with the [[Holy See]]. Various denominations of [[Protestant church]]es usually have more decentralized power, and churches may be autonomous, thus having their own rules or laws of government, at the national, local, or even individual level.

[[Jean-Paul Sartre|Sartre]] brings the concept of the Cartesian god being totally free and autonomous. He states that existence precedes essence with god being the creator of the essences, eternal truths and divine will. This pure freedom of god relates to human freedom and autonomy; where a human is not subjected to pre-existing ideas and values.<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Macken|first=John|date=2008|title=The Autonomy Theme in the Church Dogmatics: Karl Barth and his Critics}}</ref>

According to the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|first amendment]], In the [[United States|United States of America]], the federal government is restricted in building a national church. This is due to the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|first amendment's]] recognizing people's freedom's to worship their faith according to their own belief's. For example, [[Federal government of the United States|the American government]] has removed the church from their "sphere of authority"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/nkenlr35&div=11&id=&page=&collection=journals|title=Spheres of Sovereignty: Church Autonomy Doctrine and the Theological Heritage of the Separation of Church and State|last1=Renaud|first1=Robert Joseph|last2=Weinberger|first2=Laed Daniel|date=2008|website=heinonline.org|access-date=2018-03-17|archive-date=2018-03-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318054413/http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/nkenlr35&div=11&id=&page=&collection=journals|url-status=live}}</ref> due to the churches' historical impact on politics and their authority on the public. This was the beginning of the [[disestablishment]] process. The Protestant churches in the United States had a significant impact on American culture in the nineteenth century, when they organized the establishment of schools, hospitals, orphanages, colleges, magazines, and so forth.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Religion and personal autonomy: the third disestablishment in America.|last=Hammond|first=Phillip|year=1992}}</ref> This has brought up the famous, however, misinterpreted term of the [[separation of church and state]]. These churches lost the legislative and financial support from the state.

=== The disestablishment process ===
The first disestablishment began with the introduction of the [[bill of rights]].<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=Religion and personal autonomy: the third disestablishment in America|last=Hammond|first=Phillip|date=1992|isbn=978-0872498204|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|edition=First}}</ref> In the twentieth century, due to the [[Great Depression|great depression]] of the 1930s and the completion of the second world war, the American churches were revived. Specifically the Protestant churches. This was the beginning of the second disestablishment<ref name=":1" /> when churches had become popular again but held no legislative power. One of the reasons why the churches gained attendance and popularity was due to the [[baby boom]], when soldiers came back from the [[World War II|second world war]] and started their families. The large influx of newborns gave the churches a new wave of followers. However, these followers did not hold the same beliefs as their parents and brought about the political, and religious revolutions of the 1960s.

During the 1960s, the collapse of religious and cultural middle brought upon the third disestablishment.<ref name=":1" /> Religion became more important to the individual and less so to the community. The changes brought from these revolutions significantly increased the personal autonomy of individuals due to the lack of structural restraints giving them added freedom of choice. This concept is known as "new voluntarism"<ref name=":1" /> where individuals have free choice on how to be religious and the free choice whether to be religious or not.