From secularisations to political religions

Area of Science:

• History of Religion
• Political Science
• Sociology

Background:

• European culture historically features a dialectical relationship between the sacred and secular.
• A fifteenth-century crisis in Christianity spurred developments toward modernity, challenging this dualism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the evolution of the sacred-secular relationship in European culture.
• To examine the emergence of civic and political religions.
• To assess the implications for Western modernity and contemporary society.

Main Methods:

• Historical analysis of religious and political developments in Europe.
• Examination of key concepts such as civic-republican religion, sacred monarchy, and territorial churches.
• Tracing the influence of the Roman-Tridentine Compromise and Radical Christianity.

Main Results:

• The study identifies three paths eroding the sacred-secular dualism: civic-republican religion, sacred monarchy, and territorial churches.
• Two major tendencies emerged by the Eighteenth Century: civic religion (preserving conscience/law distinction) and political religion (state religion perfecting human nature).
• Civic religion influenced the early USA, separating God from worldly power but maintaining divine guarantee of agreements.

Conclusions:

• The dualism of sacred and secular power is central to Western modernity.
• There is a contemporary concern regarding the collapse of civic religion into political religion, with a specific focus on the USA.