Secularism between the problematic of the term and the seriousness of the content

Authors

  • Younis Abbas Nima University of Babylon / Babylon Center for Cultural and Historical Studies

Keywords:

Secularism, church, state, constitution, religion

Abstract

The term secularism is one of the most common and controversial terms to the day and the most obscure. The origin of the term was Western and back to the Middle Ages where the dispute over the nominal authority in the administration of religious and secular matters between the state and the church for several century, with the time , all the institutions of the governments were known as secular thought and direction from the state administration in political matters to all government institutions, and many countries of the world have introduced the term secularism in their constitutions.

Secularism was rooted in the views of the most important European thinkers from the seventeenth century onward who sought in every way the dimensions of the ecclesiastical institution of the various aspects of life, The term secularism was officially established in 1851 by the politician, thinker and journalist George Holyoke, who presented his ideas through the press and various books, the most important of which was the book of the principles of secularism. It seems that his books were not translated into Arabic .

The Church divided the Christian community into two sections. The first was the Department of Church Affairs, which included clergymen who represented the religious corps or the so-called clerical or clerical corps, and the church was called the public, which worked outside the church as secular and secular people, whatever their qualities, status and works.

One of the foundations upon which secularism was based was the idea of ​​religious tolerance, which was the result of the reaction to the blind religious fanaticism among the various sects and religious sects based on weak foundations that greatly damaged the religious establishment until the concept of tolerance came out of its proper framework and came out of the control of the Christian religious.

The most important foundations of secularism have been discussed and are still the subject of separation of religion from politics or the separation of religion from state, which must be read in terms of difference, competition, conflict and centuries-old conflict between the Church and the civil and secular institutions in Europe.

Published

2022-11-08