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30 Cardozo L. Rev. 2799 (2008-2009)
Religious Revival and Pseudo-Secularism

handle is hein.journals/cdozo30 and id is 2817 raw text is: RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AND PSEUDO-SECULARISM Guy Haarscher* I. SECULARISM: A CONFUSED NOTION It would be very difficult to assess in a unified way the various impacts of what is called religious revival on the related notions of constitutionalism and secularism. In order to begin to clarify the question, I would like first to define the concept of secularism I shall use in this article. Actually, the idea seems to be very ambiguous-and perhaps it is unmanageable-if one does not distinguish between at least two meanings of the term.' In the first sense, secularism means a personal orientation of life: a secular person is an individual who, in the basic choices he makes (in his life plans, as Rawls would have put it), does not refer to a transcendent or sacred, supra-human element. One can notice that modem life has often been defined as being dominated by a process of secularization in that sense: the idea is that people are less and less oriented by religions in their spiritual choices and their search of wisdom. Of course, such an idea, which was remarkably described by Max Weber, was also challenged, notably by Hans Blumenberg. Moreover, it applies more easily to Europe, where the unchurching of society is blatant, than to the United States. Ironically, European States support religion on a much more massive scale than the United States: there are established religions in some countries, churches are subsidized (except in some countries like France), private religious schools are funded in various ways, and religion is taught in public schools (again, with the notable exception of France). Such support of religion(s) by the States has of course had to be made compatible with the respective requirements of religious freedom and neutrality of the State (in the domain of spiritual orientations). But it remains that Europe is at the same time more secularized (atheism and agnosticism are much more present and legitimate than they are in the United States) and more supportive of religion than America. There are of course many explanations for such a paradox. Tocqueville said, when he was visiting Jacksonian America, that religion flourished there because it was separated from the State * Free University of Brussels (ULB). 1 For the following analysis, see GUY HAARSCHER, LA LAICITt (4th ed. 2008). 2799

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