IngentaConnect Secularism, Liberalism and the Problem of Tolerance The Case of t...

Author: Seligman, Adam B.

Source: Theoria, Volume 55, Number 115, April 2008 , pp. 17-31(15)

Abstract:

The separation of church and state in the USA and the critical role of disestablishment in the political doctrines of that country is no indication of a secular polity. In fact, the separation of church and state as developed in 18th century American political thought was itself a religious doctrine and rested on the unique religious beliefs of certain Protestant Churches there. One consequence of this particular mode of accommodating religion has meant that the challenge of pluralism and difference in the United States of America is met, most often, by liberal indifference. Differences are trivialized, aethetisized and, more critically, privatized. They are shielded from public scrutiny and conceptualized as irrelevant to public concern. This is an increasingly inadequate response to the challenge of difference and the plurality of the human experience. Challenges to contemporary modes of accommodating religious and ethnic pluralism are necessitating the formulation of new sets of answers which are not based on such Protestant or post-Protestant assumptions.

Keywords: SECULARISM; LIBERALISM; TOLERANCE; DIFFERENCE; IDENTITY; RECOGNITION

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.3167/th.2007.5511503

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Secularism, Liberalism and the Problem of Tolerance The Case of the USA

Secularism, Liberalism and the Problem of Tolerance
The Case of the USA