Secularism

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Secularism, in 1851, did not yet have a name. In Britain that year, a writer reaching for an alternative to a word he found too aggravating settled on a new one. He wanted to describe a way of conducting life based on naturalistic considerations, without necessarily rejecting religion. The word he chose would later mean things he never intended. How did a single term come to hold the French insistence on stripping religion from public life, the American horror of an established church, and the Indian promise of equality before the law for every faith? Why do religious minorities so often defend it, while majorities resist? And how did an idea with roots in the Bible itself become, for some, a synonym for anti-religion? This is the story of a contested word, and of the very different societies that claim it.

• 2. A Contested Word

  ›

  George Holyoake, a British agnostic writer, was the first to use the already-existing word secularism in a modern sense. He found atheism too aggravating and wanted a term that allowed cooperation with believers. His secularism described conducting life on naturalistic grounds without disproving faith. The Humanist Heritage website notes that his definition is much akin to modern definitions of humanism, broader than just atheism. Holyoake's meaning differs sharply from how later writers used the word. Modern definitions are more likely to concern the separation of church and state than personal belief. Secularism is often conflated with opposition to religion, yet it concerns minimizing religion's role rather than disproving it. It may be hostile, neutral, or even hospitable to faith. The word can encapsulate anti-clericalism, atheism, agnosticism, naturalism, non-sectarianism, or antireligion. In the United States, the word became equivalent to anti-religion through the efforts of religious fundamentalists who opposed secular government. That same charge of hostility would shadow secularism wherever it traveled.

• 3. Many Models

  ›

  France, Turkey, the United States, and India each claim secularism, yet none govern religion the same way. The American emphasis falls on avoiding an established religion and protecting freedom of belief. The French model is interventionist by contrast. In India, secularism does not completely separate state and religion, while in France it precludes such mutual involvement. Scholars identify the strictest form with the French laique model, which advocates a state firmly distanced from all religions and non-religious philosophical convictions, without exception. A more humanistic form stays indifferent to religions while insisting the state operate on evidence-based policy and human welfare. A third liberal or pillarized form, common in German-speaking and Benelux states, lets governments fund or license religions so long as all convictions are treated equally. In those countries, secular humanist organizations typically receive state funding under the same formulas applied to religious groups. In Indian political discourse, the pejorative pseudo-secularism describes a state that claims impartiality while its policies favour one religion. The purposes claimed for secularism diverge as widely as the models: some call it crucial to modernization, others the only guarantor of free religious exercise.

• 4. Principles Of The Secular State

  ›

  Legal equality between people of different religions runs through every form of political secularism. It opposes a legal hierarchy built on belief or the lack of belief. State supremacy supports obedience to the rule of law over religious diktat or canon law. Internal constraint, by contrast, opposes governmental control over personal life, so government may enforce how people act but not what they believe. Freedom of thought follows from this, as does order, meaning that belief should not be permitted to disturb the civil peace. Religious tolerance extends both to people of other faiths and to a lack of piety among one's own. Secularism also treats reason as a virtue and supports freedom from religion as an extension of freedom of religion. Religious minorities and non-religious citizens tend to support political secularism, while members of the majority religion tend to oppose it. People supporting political secularism within their own state are known as secular nationalists.

• 5. Christian Origins

  ›

  The Bible itself is where secularism's origins can be traced, fleshed out throughout Christian history into the modern era. The secular is part of the Christian church's own history, which has had secular clergy since the medieval period. The distinction between secular and religious law was emphasized in the Late Antique and early medieval West. Secular and religious entities could be distinguished in the medieval period, yet they coexisted and interacted naturally. Prominent theologians and Christian writers shaped the principles used in modern secularism, among them St. Augustine, William of Ockham, Marsilius of Padua, Martin Luther, Roger Williams, John Locke, and Talleyrand. Secular and religion are Western concepts, not universal across cultures, languages, or time. In Ancient Greece a limited secularism was practised, in which religion stayed out of governance though it remained prevalent in public life. Even now, global studies show that many people who do not identify with a religion still hold religious beliefs and join religious practices.

• 6. Revolutions And Statutes

  ›

  In 1636, Roger Williams founded the Providence Plantations as a settlement with total freedom of religion, in present-day Rhode Island. Secular ideas drew strong challenge from religious leaders and the Catholic Church in particular, igniting a religious culture war. During the American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wove the ideas of John Locke, including his secularism, into the government of the United States. A true secular state there was not achieved until the 20th century. French secularism in the Age of Enlightenment rested on Gallicanism, which emphasised state supremacy, alongside anti-clericalism and materialism. Revolutionary France opposed Catholic influence and briefly replaced Christianity with the deistic Cult of Reason. The principle of Laicite, the French notion of strict separation, was enshrined into law in 1905. Subsequent laws restricted religious iconography in public or by children. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed in 1948, protecting freedom of religion in international law.

• 7. Ataturk And Gandhi

  ›

  After Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rose to power in 1923, Turkish secularism, or laiklik, became a state ideology under Kemalism, aiming to modernise the country. Turkey's secular tradition before his reforms was limited, and its 20th century secularism was initially modelled after French laicite. Turkey remains virtually the only Muslim-majority nation with an effective secular government, though secularism stays controversial there, and the ruling party AKP is more anti-Kemalist than anti-secularist. India became a secular state after achieving independence in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi supported pluralist secularism as a means to curb tensions in a religiously diverse nation. The Indian model stressed equality of citizens before the law regardless of faith, along with some separation. India follows an accommodationist system, supporting religion in general without favouring one sect and often providing financial support. One source of disagreement there is the right of Muslims to live under both the civil code and Sharia at once, and the complications that result.

• 8. Frameworks And Philosophy

  ›

  Separationist secularism keeps the state from supporting any religious group or enforcing religious laws. The federal judiciary of the United States interpreted the Constitution as supporting this system during the 20th century, building on the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson. State atheism stands apart as a total ban on religion, permitting neither religious practice nor the separation of government from personal belief. Because it denies freedom of thought, it may or may not be counted as secularism at all, and is typically tied to Marxism and Communist states as scientific atheism. As a philosophy, secularism is closely associated with naturalism and materialism, rejecting immaterial substances like a soul in favour of a material universe. This rationalism forms the basis of most modern empirical science. Enlightenment philosophers including Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau all proposed forms of separation of church and state. Much of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy responds to the question of morality in a material universe, where good is defined as that which contributes to human flourishing and justice. After John Rawls published A Theory of Justice in 1971 and Political Liberalism in 1993, many political theorists adopted his term overlapping consensus in place of secularism. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, Rajeev Bhargava opens his chapter on political secularism with a single blunt sentence: Secularism is a beleaguered doctrine.