Some Considerations on the Contribution Provided by the Religious Cultural Heritage to a Faith Identity

This chapter aims to promote analysis of the relevance of the religious and cultural heritage; it will focus on the cultural heritage of religious interest and the relevance that it assumes in the social and juridical dialogue in Italy. In this process, cultural goods of religious interest are seen as a way of affirming the identity of the religious community and play a fundamental role within this framework. The proposal of contact points, common elements and the comparison between State institutions and religious communities represent a first important step to define and to catalogue the religious heritage so that protective and promotion actions can follow specific patterns to help and stimulate occasions to sustain and share the different identities expressed by the religious goods themselves. The significance that the cultural heritage acquires can become a fundamental means through which implement policies of religious integration and then social groups’ coexistence.