This article argues that how the United Nations (UN) conceptualizes legitimacy is not only a matter of legalism or power politics. The UN’s conception of legitimacy also utilizes concepts, language and symbolism from the religious realm. Understanding the entanglement between political and religious concepts and the ways of their verbalization at the agential level sheds light on how legitimacy became to be acknowledged as an integral part of the UN and how it changes. At the constitutional level, the article examines phrases and ‘verbal symbols’, enshrined in the Charter of the ‘secular church’ UN. They evoke intrinsic legitimacy claims based on religious concepts and discourse such as hope and salvation. At the agential level, the article illustrates how the Secretary-General verbalizes those abstract constitutional principles of legitimacy. Religious language and symbolism in the constitutional framework and agential practice of the UN does not necessarily produce an exclusive form of legitimacy. This article shows, however, that legitimacy as nested in the UN’s constitutional setting cannot exist without religious templates because they remain a matter of a ‘cultural frame’.

中文翻译：

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联合国“世俗教会”的合法性

本文认为，联合国（UN）如何将合法性概念化不仅是法制主义或强权政治的问题。联合国的合法性概念还利用了宗教领域的概念、语言和象征意义。理解政治和宗教概念之间的纠葛以及它们在代理层面的表达方式，可以揭示合法性如何被承认为联合国不可分割的一部分以及它如何变化。在宪法层面，本文考察了载于“世俗教会”联合国宪章中的短语和“语言符号”。它们唤起了基于宗教概念和话语（如希望和救赎）的内在合法性主张。在代理层面，这篇文章说明了秘书长如何表述这些抽象的合法性宪法原则。联合国宪法框架和代理实践中的宗教语言和象征意义并不一定会产生一种排他性的合法性形式。然而，本文表明，如果没有宗教模板，嵌套在联合国宪法环境中的合法性就无法存在，因为它们仍然是一个“文化框架”的问题。