Candles in the Dark: A New Spirit for a Plural World

Chapter 2: Secularism, Globalization, and the Role of the State: A Plea for Renewal

CHAPTER 2 SECULARISM, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE: A PLEA FOR RENEWAL Richard Falk How to hold secure one's own moral and spiritual self, one's personal, reflective destiny-amidst the crushing institutional forces of the state, but also of the marketplace and, yes, the church in its decidedly secular aspect. Robert Colesl That a delicate shuttle should have woven together the heavens, industry, texts, souls and moral law-this remains uncanny, unthinkable, unseemly. Bruno Latour Points ofDeparture Secularism is difficult to disentangle from kindred ideas of ."the Western Enlightenment heritage," "modernity," "rationalism" and "The Age of Reason." There is about these widely used terms a shared sense of worldliness, of scientific method, of suspicion about claims of transcendence, and a refusal to be bound by tradition. Instead, there exists a belief in progress, in technological innovation , in Western superiority and destiny. Secularism is also tied historically and ideologically to the fate of the sovereign state as the 47 RICHARD FALK primary organizing unit of world order. Thus, at a moment when these keystone terms are all subject to doubt and controversy, the challenge of situating "secularism" in relation to religion, and otherwise , is indeed formidable. The secular character of the state was an invention of Western Europe that took hold of the Western political imagination in the 17th century, and emerged powerfully in response to specific historical factors. Secularism as an intellectual, and later ideological , current was, of course, a broader phenomenon than the ideological identity of the state. Its main tenets were rooted in the desirability of grounding knowledge and the governance of society on the non-religious foundations of scientific rationality to the extent possible. As such, secularism and modernity are closely associated, and to be contrasted with medievalism, which above all stresses the fusing of political and religious institutions and authority on the basis of faith in shared transcendent truth. To the extent that modernity is itself now being partially superseded by a series of developments associated with "globalization," the status and nature, and above all, the monolithic character of secularism is also being drawn into question from a variety of different angles.3 The same sense of rupture can be expressed futuristically as well, often by deploying the terminology of postmodernism.4 Secularism as the foundation for the orientation of the modem European state was intimately associated with the struggle to limit the impact of religion on the public order, but perhaps even more so to confine ecclesiastical influence to civil society. Religious warfare in Europe, culminating in the Thirty Years War, produced a broad political consensus that the role of religion was a matter to be decided within the confines of territorial sovereignty. Religiously motivated intervention became unacceptable. A further intertwined, yet distinct, development involved internal relations between state and society with respect to the proper role of religion. Particularly important was the emergent view that the state should become neutral with respect to the religious orientation of its population, and that the ruler is obliged to uphold the freedom of conscience and belief of all citizens by adhering to an ethos of toleration.5 In a 48 SECULARISM, GLOBALIZATION, AND THE ROLE OF THE STATE genuine sense, the international movement to protect the religious liberty of individuals marked, in effect, the origins of international human rights, and although often not implemented in practice, at least provided a benchmark for assessing the behavior of states. This secularist outcome was far from being a foregone conclusion . There was an established widespread assumption that the stability of a state and the loyalty and obedience of the people within a given set of territorial limits was crucially dependent on a sense of identity and solidarity arising from adherence to a common religion . Further, it was widely believed that religious disunity in civil society would breed struggles by opposed tendencies to control the state, and was almost certain to produce either oppression by the dominant religion or periodic civil war between rival religions seeking control over the state. This belief in the benefits of religious unity provided the rationale that underlay the maxim cuius regia eius religia . Only after much turmoil was this ethos of religiously homogeneous states successfully challenged by the internal application ofthe secularist alternative ushering in an era of religious tolerance.6 Some account must also be taken of the degree to which nationalism and patriotism moved into the vacuum...