Article: Michael Novak on Religious Freedom: Europe, Islam and the Anglo-American Model
NEW YORK, FEB. 20, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The principles of the American Founding provide a helpful guide for the Islamic world as it tries to foster democratic traditions and institutions, says Michael Novak.
Those same principles could prove edifying for Europe, particularly France, as it struggles to assimilate Muslim immigrants, the Catholic scholar adds.
Writing in the March issue of First Things, Novak, the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, notes that the "laicization" promoted by the French Revolution actually, and intentionally, speeds the decline of religion, and thus democracy.
Novak claims that unlike the rapid secularization seen in Europe since 1789, the American experience has been different. This is due in part to the twin premises on which Anglo-American liberty of conscience rests: one secular and one religious.
The "secular" dimension, according to Novak, is that every person, because of his or her rational nature, is responsible for evaluating evidence presented to the individual consciousness in order to conform one's life to the truth as apprehended.
This responsibility entails a right to make such choices. The right of conscience is both inalienable and inviolable because no one can make these choices for another.
The "religious" dimension of Anglo-American liberty is the belief that a benevolent Creator God is governor of the universe.
Novak says this belief has four components: "the greatness of the Creator; the duty of the creature to recognize, be grateful to, and adore the Creator; the freedom of soul that the Creator endowed in humans for such acts; and the friendship with humans that God desired."
Accommodation
The model Novak describes can be called "accommodation," rather than "separation of church and state." Both institutions prospered more when each operated within its own sphere of authority.
However, this did not mean the exile of religion from society. As Novak has argued in many places, religion played a vital role in the shaping of the early American republic. President Thomas Jefferson, for instance, attended weekly the largest religious service in the nation -- held inside the U.S. Capitol building.
Furthermore, the religious liberty to which each person had a right meant that not only could one exercise that religion freely in private, but also in the full range of the public activities of civil society, consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
Novak notes that in two recent books, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) commented on the intersection between religion and public life.
The future Pope stated, "A purely secular society living as if there is no God tends to value individual liberty before any other good." Thus, for some, this preference is understood as the key democratic principle.
Policies or worldviews seen as threats to this principle are banished from the public square. This democracy without values becomes, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "thinly disguised totalitarianism."
When the individual becomes the center of moral analysis, subjective preference and the priority of the will triumph over reason and intelligence. This reinforces the view that moral truth can no longer be grasped.
Novak says this preference cannot long be maintained, as it tends to privilege some human beings over others. A purely secular democracy ends up promoting the rights of the strong over those of the weak -- abortion being just one example.
Authentic secularism
Novak highlights the fact that what is usually meant by secularism draws from the religious heritage of Abrahamic religion, particularly such liberal ideas as liberty, equality, fraternity, compassion and progress.
The secular regimes of communism and fascism ran aground because they ignored the truth about the human person found in natural law.
As Islamic nations attempt to become more democratic, a reconsideration of the existing models in the West is required.
Novak concludes: "The differences between the American solution, with its positive evaluation of religion, and the non-religious or even anti-religious theories of secularism is not so widely known.
"But the American notion that the goal is an accommodation of religion and society, along with the separate functions of church can open up a new vista for Muslim thinkers."
Those same principles could prove edifying for Europe, particularly France, as it struggles to assimilate Muslim immigrants, the Catholic scholar adds.
Writing in the March issue of First Things, Novak, the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, notes that the "laicization" promoted by the French Revolution actually, and intentionally, speeds the decline of religion, and thus democracy.
Novak claims that unlike the rapid secularization seen in Europe since 1789, the American experience has been different. This is due in part to the twin premises on which Anglo-American liberty of conscience rests: one secular and one religious.
The "secular" dimension, according to Novak, is that every person, because of his or her rational nature, is responsible for evaluating evidence presented to the individual consciousness in order to conform one's life to the truth as apprehended.
This responsibility entails a right to make such choices. The right of conscience is both inalienable and inviolable because no one can make these choices for another.
The "religious" dimension of Anglo-American liberty is the belief that a benevolent Creator God is governor of the universe.
Novak says this belief has four components: "the greatness of the Creator; the duty of the creature to recognize, be grateful to, and adore the Creator; the freedom of soul that the Creator endowed in humans for such acts; and the friendship with humans that God desired."
Accommodation
The model Novak describes can be called "accommodation," rather than "separation of church and state." Both institutions prospered more when each operated within its own sphere of authority.
However, this did not mean the exile of religion from society. As Novak has argued in many places, religion played a vital role in the shaping of the early American republic. President Thomas Jefferson, for instance, attended weekly the largest religious service in the nation -- held inside the U.S. Capitol building.
Furthermore, the religious liberty to which each person had a right meant that not only could one exercise that religion freely in private, but also in the full range of the public activities of civil society, consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
Novak notes that in two recent books, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) commented on the intersection between religion and public life.
The future Pope stated, "A purely secular society living as if there is no God tends to value individual liberty before any other good." Thus, for some, this preference is understood as the key democratic principle.
Policies or worldviews seen as threats to this principle are banished from the public square. This democracy without values becomes, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "thinly disguised totalitarianism."
When the individual becomes the center of moral analysis, subjective preference and the priority of the will triumph over reason and intelligence. This reinforces the view that moral truth can no longer be grasped.
Novak says this preference cannot long be maintained, as it tends to privilege some human beings over others. A purely secular democracy ends up promoting the rights of the strong over those of the weak -- abortion being just one example.
Authentic secularism
Novak highlights the fact that what is usually meant by secularism draws from the religious heritage of Abrahamic religion, particularly such liberal ideas as liberty, equality, fraternity, compassion and progress.
The secular regimes of communism and fascism ran aground because they ignored the truth about the human person found in natural law.
As Islamic nations attempt to become more democratic, a reconsideration of the existing models in the West is required.
Novak concludes: "The differences between the American solution, with its positive evaluation of religion, and the non-religious or even anti-religious theories of secularism is not so widely known.
"But the American notion that the goal is an accommodation of religion and society, along with the separate functions of church can open up a new vista for Muslim thinkers."
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10:37 AM
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