7. Hard questions and new conflicts

Secularism has always been controversial. But today both the official secularism of constitutional republics and the secular ethic of liberal democracies are also being rocked by rapid social changes, resurgent religious identities and nationalisms, increasing migration, and many other factors. Secularism is an idea under siege by its opponents at the same time as conflicts within secularism pit its different aspects against each other in new tensions. ‘Hard questions and new conflicts’ considers secularism in practice, education as a feature of secularism, blasphemy and criticism of religions, religious expression in a secular state, religious diversity in the West, and resurgent political religion.

5. The case against secularism

Arguments against secularism come from both defensive and offensive positions and vary accordingly. ‘The case against secularism’ considers some of the opponents to secularism, including theocracies, Islamic states, states with established churches, and Communist states. Opponents of secularism in the age when it was hypothetical made arguments to defend the religious status quo. Many of these are still used today. Since the institution of secularism as a state system, new arguments have come from secularism’s critics and these have a different character, targeted as they are at an ideology in power. It adds further complexity that many critics of secularism seek to modify its content and change its definition rather than to oppose it completely.

4. The case for secularism

The secular systems of different states have varied according to the nature of their own particular society and their religious, cultural, and political history. Even so, the same types of arguments have been used each time to advance secularism as the best religion–state arrangement to provide individual freedom, equality, peace, and democracy in a modern society. ‘The case for secularism’ considers these points in turn and concludes that the case for secularism is cumulative and deals with what is the best possible outcome, not the perfect outcome; it involves compromise and mutual accommodation. One thing all these arguments do is to assert the value of an impartial state that mediates the differences of its citizens.

3. Secularism diversifies

In Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries, many reformers saw European secularism as an exemplar for their new political orders. Many Asian states went on to adopt a form they called secular, but that in practice conceals a diversity of ways of organizing religion. ‘Secularism diversifies’ examines two avowedly secular states—Turkey and India—who had resources within their own political and religious traditions with which to form their secularism. In the early 21st century, secularism is contested from all quarters, but is also winning new adherents in many parts of the world as populations subject to strong religious sanctions see it still as one of the essential aspects of modernity.

2. Secularism in Western societies

‘Secularism in Western societies’ begins by considering the city states of Ancient Greece and then the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, with increasing church–state relations. It was the thinkers of the age of Enlightenment in Europe from the late 17th to the late 18th century whose work on church and state gave birth to a full theory of secularism that for the first time affected the policy of states in the real world. Official state secularism in France and America is discussed along with a look at modern Western societies where the rule of law through non-religious values embedded in constitutions has become the foundation of most states.

6. Conceptions of secularism

Jean Baubérot’s ideal secularism is not a political reality anywhere and never has been. There are a variety of configurations even in states that describe themselves officially as secular. They do not have identical laws, constitutions, or ways of relating to religious institutions. There are also some states that are not officially secular, but are in many ways secular in practice. ‘Conceptions of secularism’ discusses the continuing debate that rages over the definition of ‘secularism’ between philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, campaigners, politicians, and lawyers who all disagree with each other about what it should and should not mean. All these conceptions of secularism influence each other and all have their partisans and their critics.

1. What is secularism?

The British social reformer George Jacob Holyoake (1817–1906) coined the word ‘secularism’ to describe his this-worldly approach to personal morals, to philosophy, and to the of society and politics. A modern definition, provided by scholar Jean Baubérot, sees secularism made up of three parts: separation of religious institutions from the institutions of the state and no domination of the political sphere by religious institutions; freedom of thought, conscience, and religion for all; and no state discrimination against anyone on grounds of their religion or non-religious worldview. ‘What is secularism?’ considers these three parts in more depth and also explains that the idea of secularism is much older.