Religion and the Public Sphere

Religion in the public sphere (hereafter RPS) refers to the intermingling of religion with issues of politics, governance, the state, and institutions of civil society. That it is a topic of interest to academics across the humanities and social sciences is itself a reflection of the gradual separation—over many centuries—of religion from public affairs in modern, largely secular, societies of the West. The readmission of religion to the public sphere raises several key issues, not least around secularization (and the extent to which religion has been disassociated from public life and policymaking), but also about the resurgence of religious conservatism as an attempt to close the gap opened up in modernity between religion and politics. The renewal of interest in religion as a social, cultural, and political force—a feature of what some are now calling the “post-secular”—has proved especially contentious in diverse, multifaith liberal democracies, where attempts to divorce religion from public life can be seen to undermine the inclusion of religious minorities and the expression of religious identities. Academic interest in the intersection between religion and public life has been concentrated largely among sociologists (of religion) and political scientists. The revival of religion in the public sphere confounds a widely held assumption among modern social and political theorists; namely, that religion would wither as a feature of public life as societies underwent a process of modernization—and where religion continued to exist at all, it would be confined to the private, domestic sphere and that of individual belief. Particular interest has been generated by controversies that expose the vexed nature of attempts to limit or bar the admission of religion in public life; such as the 1962 ruling by the US Supreme Court removing prayer from public schools (in the spirit of the First Amendment of the US Constitution), or, more recently, the banning of religious headscarves (and other “ostentatious” symbols of religion) from public schools in 2004 by the French authorities (in the spirit of secularism—or laïcité) enshrined in Article 1 of the French Constitution). Attempts to undo the “wall of separation” between religion and state first envisioned by Thomas Jefferson can be seen in attempts by American religious conservatives to overturn “progressive” legislation on abortion, gay rights, and same-sex marriage. Recent opposition in the United Kingdom by Muslim conservatives to LGBT education in public schools illustrates the sensitivities and tensions surrounding expressions of RPS in contemporary Western societies.