Suchergebnisse

The article explores the various meanings and concepts of secularism presented by famous ideologues and sociologists of their time. Two contrary concepts of the secularism - one that defines secularism as denial of existence of religions or supernatural forces and another that defines secularism as concept of peaceful co-existence and mutual harmony has been discussed here. The difference of application of secularism on the individual human being and a state is also explained here. The article concludes that no state of human being can remain isolated or indifferent from the influence of religion even if they want. None of the concepts of secularism apply in real life performances; neither on individual nor state.

Abstract
Russian Orthodoxy and Secularism surveys the ways in which the Russian Orthodox Church has negotiated its relationship with the secular state, with other religions, and with Western modernity from its beginnings until the present. It applies multiple theoretical perspectives and draws on different disciplinary approaches to explain the varied and at times contradictory facets of Russian Orthodoxy as a state church or as a critic of the state, as a lived religion or as a civil religion controlled by the state, as a source of dissidence during Communism or as a reservoir of anti-Western, anti-modernist ideas that celebrate the uniqueness and superiority of the Russian nation. Kristina Stoeckl argues that, three decades after the fall of Communism, the period of post-Soviet transition is over for Russian Orthodoxy and that the Moscow Patriarchate has settled on its role as national church and provider of a new civil religion of traditional values.

This paper analyses how, despite the universalist and inclusive vocation of secularism, this has become the main argument for the exclusion of Muslim religious practices, with the consequent limitation of individual liberties. Thus, an institution thought as a procedure to guarantee the equality of the citizens through the differentiation between the political and religious spheres becomes a feature that defines the identity of Europe and that it is necessary to defend against the accommodation demands raised by Muslim immigrants. Obviously, it is not possible to establish a cause-effect relationship, but the climate of hostility towards the cultural difference spread by the entry into several European polities of radical right parties, clearly hostile to Islam and Muslims, could be influencing, in some way, the political orientation of European governments in this regard.Received: 17 December 2017Accepted: 8 May 2018Published online: 31 October 2018