Religion and Politics: The European Experience

1. Religion and Politics: The European Experience September 29, 2004

2. Religion and Politics: The European Experience • Secularization • Separation of Religion and Politics • Religious Freedom and Toleration

3. Three Types of Secularization • Forced Secularization • Private Secularization • Institutional Secularization

4. Institutional Secularization • Secular vs. Religious Law • State Welfare vs. Religious Charity • State Schools vs. Religious Schools • State Church vs. Religious Pluralism • State Religion vs. Religious Freedom • Civic Nationalism vs. Confessional Nationalism

5. Toleration and Religious Pluralism • Religious Belief No Bar to Public Office • Religious Discrimination Outlawed in Private Life • Religious Claims in Politics Are Not Trumps • All Faiths Are Equal • All Faiths Are Tolerated

6. The Diversity of European Secularization • Western Europe vs. Eastern Europe • Protestant Europe vs. Catholic Europe • Private Secularization and Religious Establishment: UK and Norway • Private Secularization and Religious Parties: Italy and Germany • Education and the State

7. Education and the State: Spain • Spain has no national law against wearing religious symbols in schools.

8. Education and the State: Britain • Britain does not have a law against wearing religious symbols in schools. Schools can insist on a uniform, but only if the policy is not aimed at a particular religion.

9. Education and the State: Germany • Germany has no national ban against headscarves or other religious symbols in schools, but many states have enacted such bans. • The German Supreme Court ruled in September 2003 that a woman could not be denied a teaching job for insisting on wearing her headscarf in the classroom. • Six of sixteen states have responded by passing laws that bar teachers and/or civil servants from wearing headscarves while at work. • Some of these state laws apply to all religious symbols, while others focus explicitly on Muslim symbols or make exceptions for Christian ones.

10. Education and the State: France • The state funds private religious education, including both Catholic and Muslim schools. • A March 2004 law prohibits the display of “ostensive religious symbols” in public schools. The new law covers Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps, Sikh turbans, and large crosses.

11. Religion, State and Nation: The Historical Experience • Religion Provides Social Cohesion Prior to Emergence of Centralizing Monarchies • Centralizing States Must Control Religion In Order to Establish National Authority • Confessional Identity is the Root of National Identity • Some States Create National Authority By Religious Exclusion • Other States Create National Authority by Religious Toleration

12. Case Study: Spain • 1453: Fall of Constantinople • 1469: Union of Aragon and Castile • 1478: State Control of the Inquisition • 1492: Christian Capture of Granada • 1492: Expulsion of the Jews • 1492: Publication of First Vernacular Grammar in Spanish • 1492: Columbus Arrives in the New World • 1609: Expulsion of Moriscos

13. Themes • State Allies With but Also Subordinates the Church to Create National Unity • State Formation Through Exclusion: Jews and Moriscos • State Formation Through Empire

14. Protestantism as Politics • A Popular Revolt Against Church Authority • The Priesthood of All Believers • The Congregation vs. the Church • Render Unto Caesar. . . • The Role of the Godly Magistrate

15. Case Study: Germany • Protestantism Fragments Germany • Reformers Ally with Secular Princes to Survive the Peasants and the Catholic Counter-Attack • Reformers and the Godly Magistrate • 1559: Peace of Augsburg. Cuius Regio Eius Religio • 1648: Treaty of Westphalia. Sovereignty as Non-Interference in the Religious Politics of Other States

16. Case Study: England • 1520: Protestant Reformation • 1534: Henry VIII Defies the Papacy over Marriage • Tudor State Nationalizes the English Church • 1550’s: Marian Persecutions • 1580: Elizabeth Excommunicated by Pope • 1588: Elizabeth Defeats Catholic Spain • Protestantism and English National Identity • 1600-1640: Consolidation of Monarchical Authority vs. Protestant Popular Resistance • 1640-1660: Civil War as a Defeat Both for Puritan Extremism and Monarchical Absolutism • 1660: Limited Toleration as the Basis of Civil Order

18. Themes • State Formation Means Putting the Church in its Place • Putting the Church in its Place Provokes Conflict with Rome and Spain • External Enemies (Spain, Papacy) Enhance Protestant Religio-Nationalist Identity • Religious Civil War Establishes Limits on Monarchical Power; Limits on Religious Power • Toleration and Political Promise Keeping • Persistence of Protestantism as Basis of Exclusionary National Identity: Northern Ireland

19. France • 1520: Protestantism Challenges the Catholic Church and the King • 1540-1598: Civil War Devastates France • 1598: Edict of Nantes: Limited Toleration for Protestants • 1660-1714: Louis XIV Subdues the Church, Defeats the Nobility, Fights Protestant Holland • State Nationalizes Grain Supply, Poor Relief, Taxation and Administration • 1685: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes: “One King, One Law, One Faith” • 1789: La République One and Indivisible. “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”—and Secularité

21. Themes • Revolution Continues the Monarchy’s Project of One Nation, One Law, One People. • Identity is Secularized: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity • Citizens Are Created by the State: The Ideal of Secular Education • Religion is Private, Politics is Public • Political Debate Must be Secular

23. The Future of Faith and Politics in Europe • Continuing Private Secularization of Faith • Increasing Salience of Islam in Europe • Religious Freedom vs. State Authority • Religious Pluralism vs. National Unity

24. The Lesson of the European Experience • State Formation and Secularization • Religion as a Source of Conflict • Toleration by Exhaustion • Pluralism and Religious Claims in Politics • Religions as Interest Groups