Religion in the Secular State

<strong>Centre for Philosophy School of Social sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> Talk on <strong>Religion in the Secular State</strong> By <strong>Michael Becker</strong> (Associate Professor at Würzburg University, Germany) Date:<strong> 3rd March, 2015</strong> <strong>Abstract :</strong> The European secular state is the result of a century long development. One of the main goals of the Enlightenment period, beside the criticism of an almighty Catholic Church, was the justification of the state by non-religious reasons. This has also been subject of modern social contract theories since Hobbes. Above this place and function of (the Christian) religion within the secular state was to be determined anew. The well-known outcome of these efforts since the days of the American Revolution is the strict separation of the political and the religious sphere. But this separation-thesis is, if at all, not completely convincing. Especially it cannot explain if and how citizens who are at the same time members of religious groups can participate in politics. A more appropriate model of the relationship of politics and religion is John Rawls' concept of overlapping consensus and public reason. It is suitable to show how conflicts in multicultural societies (in the West) should be solved. Examples from recent debates (in Germany) maybe can prove this.