Journal of Policy History

McClay, Wilfred M.
Two Concepts of Secularism
Journal of Policy History - Volume 13, Number 1, 2001, pp. 47-72

Penn State University Press

Wilfred M. McClay - Two Concepts of Secularism - Journal of Policy History 13:1 Journal of Policy History 13.1 (2001) 47-72 Two Concepts of Secularism Wilfred M. McClay Looking back over the century just ended, it is not easy to assess the status and prospects of secularism and the secular ideal in the United States. As is so often the case in American history, when one sets out in search of the simple and obvious, one soon comes face to face with a crowd of paradoxes. The psychologist Erik Erikson once observed that Americans have a talent for sustaining opposites, and he could hardly have been more right. Such Janus-faced doubleness, or multiplicity, is virtually the American specialité de la maison. Consider a few examples. The American Revolution was, as Samuel Johnson delighted in pointing out, led by valiant freedom fighters -- who were also the owners of slaves. It would be hard to imagine a nation whose self-conception has been more firmly wedded to moralistic idealism -- or to unabashed materialism. The same nation that worships a high-octane, near-anarchic style of individualism is also a nation that in practice puts a stiflingly high premium on social conformity -- even if the standard being conformed to is one tailor-made to look fashionably anarchic, like a pair of hand-faded, designer-torn blue jeans, purchased off the rack. More to our present purpose, consider another American paradox: that the vanguard nation of technological...