23/11/2008 - PROCESS TOWARDS SECULARIZATION

This paper contains a brief historical process of religion and secularization from the medieval world till today and quests the main reasons for their emergence. Throughout the paper, the analysis focuses on the relation between cause and effect through a review of theories of reputable scholars of this topic.

It can be fairly said that Europe sheltered the most distinct times in Medieval period. What the continent witnessed in those years gradually became the building stones of what today’ s modern society owns. According to Watson, Middle Ages in Europe was experiencing a bothersome but one of the most creative periods of the world history which led to the emergence of the idea of democracy. [1] When the background of its formation is considered, “democracy” implies more than a governmental regime type, but evolution of humanity  through years of bittering experiences. The formation of the idea of secularization is one of the important features that Middle Ages bequeathed us. Today, even if its neccessity is still debated in some societies, we generally assume that secularism is the horsehead which provides states and citizens with fair and effective governance. Of course, this idea did not start in one day; it is the product of hundreds of years of humanity and it has not got only one origin. Actually, every revolutionary step taken for modernity can be assumed as beneficiary but I will handle only the basic reasons for the emergence of secularism. Before focusing on secularization of societies, religions and politics of middle ages should be mentioned in order to understand the historical evolutionary process.

Watson links the process to the fall of Roman Empire in the west, which led Europe to witness a great difficult years by creation of a number of kingdoms formed out of prostrate kingdoms starting from ad 476 to the year 1000. As a result of Great Roman Empire, a universal Latin speaking church that is directed from Rome remained a sense of universality and common membership of Latin Christendom. Even if it has diversities inside such as classes hereditary such as nobility, clergy, townspeople, etc.., the medieval christendom was a single society. The church was an institution responsible from almost everything besides religion. Many innovations were developed and diffused by the church on the areas farming, building, metalworking, seamanship and other arts together with the increasing population, gradually increased the power of the church and even, pope became more powerful than emperor in some parts of the Europe such as France. [2]  

However, ordinary people were not loyal to nobility which resulted into subsequent development of the European international society of states.  Men’ s attempts to defend or alter the ideas and the institutions of  medieval ages  went parallel to the expansion of medieval christendom and the European international system found herself in Renaissance period, in which the questions were being asked whether something is beautiful or ugly, effective or futile, true or untrue rather than right or wrong . [3]

In the Italian renaissance, princes had a great concentration of power in their hands. So, the renaissance Italian contribution was to develop new techniques of acquiring and consolidating real power within a territorial area.[4] On the other side, late medieval Europe was stil organized by universal church; however renaissance and the reformation dislocated this horizontal structure of medieval christendom. With the efforts of Martin Luther who criticised church and Jean Calvin who critisized not only church but also hierarchical structure and tradition of the universal church, religious reformation started to take place in peoples’ minds.

In Spruyt’ s article, modes of nonterritorial organizations are handled and compared with the sovereign states. According to his study, none of feudalism, church or Holy Roman Empire have geographic limits. Having no territorial definition was one of the most important weaknesses of these structures.

The emergence of feudalism can be considered as a precaution for military and monatary difficulties in order to provide local defence. However, the lack of hierarchy, nonexclusiveness  and territorial rule was made the system inevitable to break down. [5]

The basis for the emergence of sovereign, territorial states is a result of clashes between universalist mode of church and empire. Spruyt claims that both of them developed a theory of sovereignty but the main tension between these two is that none recognized territorial boundaries of its authority. Additionaly they were conflicting with each other on divinity and tolerance of pluralism under the Pax Romana of Holy Roman Empire. This was contradictory for the aims of christian conversion of church because christianity was an organization among fellow believers of elsewhere which was a rival to imperial rule. This is one of the reasons that christianity came to florish only after the decline of the empire. [6]

The Church being a cultural, economic and political actor and not delimiting its territorial authority in any territorial sense but advancing universalist claim to rule over the christian community of believers came to the conclusion of problems with requirements on formal border existence. Legitimacy was denied, fragmentation started and the struggle led to new modes of organizing and justifying rule. The decline of power of the church engendered several results in Europe. One of them is Westphalia System which means legitimizing commonwealth of sovereign states.

As it is obviously seen, modern international constitutions are the product of religious background of Europe. Today, there are some debates on the roots of modern international relations or the roots of Westphalia. According to Phillpott, the christian Reformation is not the only cause of emergence of sovereignty however one of the basic causes, a crucial source. He claims that there are several long term dynamics which contributed to the process but the sparking reason is protestant reformation. [7]

When the forms of these reformations are handled which were analyzed by Philpott, we see origin of sovereignty occured by three ways. Reformation from below- public forces the above society, that Germay, Netherlands and Transylvania experienced-, from above – elites forces the others, like in Sweden, England and Denmark -  and as politique solution in order to have sovereignty like in France. [8]

These evolutions developed the foundations of secular understadings. Peter Berger in his study that analyze the elements of sociological theory of religion, claims that  the process of secularization is first employed in the wake of the wars of religion to denote the removal of territory or property from the control of ecclesiastical authorities. And additonally, protestantism served as a historically decisive prelude to secularization. However, he argues that the roots of secularization are also to be found in the earliest available sources for the religion of ancient Israel in the old testament under the meaning of “disenchantment of the world”. [9] But he adds, the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms of this world and the world after this in which the autonomy of the secular world is actually given a theological legitimation. The protestant revolution is a reemergence of secularizing forces that had been contained by catholicism, not only replicating the old testament in this but going beyond. [10] Berger attain the reason for it to happen in the modern west is the religious traadition of the modern west.

Wallis and Bruce, point out the study of August Comte who devised the search for a “Religion of Humanity” and emphasize the social change. However according to Walis and Bruce,  while the idea of science gradually taking the place of religion, it has had a great influence over the general public. But the consequences were perceived as a social change rather than intellectual advance by Marx, Weber and Durkheim who accepted the theory as a long term trend. [11]

According to some historians, the turning point was the eighteenth century enlightenment. A second approach is the industrial revolution that has a massive shift of populations from villages to towns from 1800 onwards while the third approach is developments in science, philosophy and the study of religion around the middle of the nineteenth century (Darwin, as a central figure) from 1960 onward, a much more rapid decline in religious practice. McLeod gathers together these as : the march of science, modernisation, postmodernity and selling god.

In Lapidus’ article which treats state and religion in Islamic societies, shows the difference of  islamic societies from western societies in that they do not have a church institution. In these societies, state and religion are embodied in the same person. On the other hand, western style seperates the state and religious institutions. This can be considered as the result of rival between church and Roman State since the christian churches born in opposition to the the empire and evolved as independent institutions. [12]

On this issue Taylor claims that although people think that secularism can not be applied to other cultures, it is a wrong thinking. There were great overlap and great conflict between church and the state, but in all versions and on all sides it was axiomatic that there had to be a separation of spheres. The origin point of modern western secularism was the wars of religion and the need was felt for a ground of coexistence for christians of different confessional persuations. There are different strategies; firstly, the aim was to establish a certain ethic of peaceful coexistence and political order while still christian which is called as the common ground strategy. And secondly, trying to define an independent political ethic independent from our religious beliefs altogether. Taylor claims that the common ground approach challenges the independent ethic while an independent political ethic is difficult to sustain. So, he suggests another approach which is consensus view for today’ s diversified societies which aims to respect diversity of such understandings while building consensus on the ethic. [13]

In conclusion, the process starting from old testament, protestantism, wars of religion, Westphalia, enlightenment period, industrial revolution and scientific developments have significant contributions to the development of secularism. Ofcourse, there are several additional factors which shaped today’ s understanding of secularism, but when we look at the basic reasons behind that, the effects of religion is undeniable.