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This paper analyses the role of the principle of secularism with respect to the consolidation of the democratic 'host' nations which confront themselves with other cultural and religious identities. The aim is pursued by a revisitation of the concept, in the light of the philosophy of ideas. The core of the argumentation is the following: both liberal and liberal-democratic western states are grounded on what contemporary scholars, proving true John Locke, call the subtle art of distinction among spheres and dimensions of individual and collective life. This must be reconsidered nowadays in order to tackle properly the struggle among groups whose specific symbolic internal cohesion is based on forms of religious identity.

The author claims: 1) in Spinoza a classical idea of toleration, if traceable, has a marginal role: no logic of concession, the one that (in Thomas' conception) allows the prince to resign to the different cults just like one may resign to the human vices and sins; and no toleration as an intermediate claim, in view of a fuller acknowledgement of the individual rights (Locke, Voltaire); 2) in Spinoza there is a clear idea of an underlying "patience", which lays under political power; a kind of "continuous low", with variations that become decisive within the raising of the «imperium»: a most peculiar and original thesis that originates from the core of Spinoza's political thought, and that reverses the traditional roles of "tolerant" and "tolerated", of one and many, of governor and multitudo.

FRANÇAIS: Dans "Costantino il vincitore", Alessandro Barbero passe au crible les sources et l'historiographie constantiniennes de manière très critique et souvent profitable. À partir de l'ouvrage de Barbero, cet article discute de quatre points touchant à la politique ou au parcours religieux de Constantin: tout d'abord, la question des récits de visions, réfutées par Barbero, et de leur influence historiographique; puis celle de la conversion et des permanences païennes dans l'iconographie et sur les monnaies. Enfin, après avoir discuté du traitement réservé aux documents constantiniens et de la querelle donatiste, nous reviendrons sur la tolérance plus ou moins grande manifestée par l'empereur envers les païens et les juifs, et sur la manière dont Eusèbe présente les activités et le parcours religieux du prince dans la Vita Constantini, en nous écartant parfois sensiblement de l'analyse proposée par Barbero. / ENGLISH: In his book "Costantino il vincitore", Alessandro Barbero carefully examines the Constantinian sources and historiography, in a critical and often profitable manner. This article discusses 4 issues concerning the religious path and policy of Constantine, sometimes significantly departing from Barbero's positions: first, the Constantinian visions (dismissed by Barbero) and their influence in some ancient historiographical debates; then, the conversion of Constantine and the question of pagan permanences in iconography and coins issues. Afterwards, it discusses Barbero's treatment of the Constantinian constitutions and letters, especially those pertaining to the Donatist controversy. Finally, it examines the lesser or greater religious toleration of Constantine for pagans and Jews, and the description of the emperor's religious path and activities given by Eusebius of Caesarea.

La tesi ricostruisce la vita e la dottrina politica di Mary Astell (1666-1731), pensatrice politica, filosofa e teologa inglese. La sua riflessione costituisce un capitolo essenziale ma poco esplorato della storia costituzionale e del pensiero politico inglese. Malgrado il suo conservatorismo anglicano, Astell incarna una critica proto-femminista al patriarcato. Questa critica, pur essendo specialmente affilata nel pensiero di Astell, è condivisa, al netto di alcune significative differenze, anche da altre importanti pensatrici tra metà Seicento e inizio Settecento. Essa è definita come antipatriarcalismo materiale, in quanto mette in discussione i rapporti materiali di potere tra i sessi e si oppone all'antipatriarcalismo formale di Locke. L'antipatriarcalismo materiale si lega all'irruzione femminile nella sfera pubblica in formazione, durante la grande ribellione degli anni Quaranta del Seicento, che è contestuale allo sviluppo di una agency femminile in campo economico e giuridico. Insieme al dibattito politico-religioso, dunque, si considerano i trattati giuridici, i manuali di condotta, le petizioni e le profezie femminili del secolo delle Rivoluzioni, al fine di ricostruire il contesto giuridico e sociale a cui appartengono Astell e le altre donne "straordinarie" del tempo. In questo scenario Astell elabora la sua teologia politica, che implica una critica delle politiche di tolleranza e del tentativo dei dissenzienti e dei whig di riscrittura della storia. Astell teorizza la necessità dell'ordine politico, laddove tutto il potere è nelle mani di Dio e del re, Suo vicario sulla terra. L'autorità divina assoluta consente di pensare un'eguaglianza radicale delle anime davanti a Dio, condizione che rende la subordinazione delle donne agli uomini impossibile da sostenere. Questa rivendicazione dell'uguaglianza delle donne emerge con forza nel dibattito sull'educazione, in cui Astell interviene proponendo la creazione di un ritiro filosofico-religioso femminile che inauguri una sfera pubblica separata in grado di preparare le donne ad affrontare la società degli uomini. ; The thesis investigates the life and political thought of Mary Astell (1666-1731), English political thinker, philosopher and theologian. Her reflections constitute an essential but rather unexplored chapter of English political thought and Constitutional History. Despite her Anglican Toryism, she embodies a proto-feminist critique to early modern patriarchy. While this critique is most consistently advanced by Astell, it is shared, notwithstanding some significant differences, by other outstanding female thinkers of the Century of Revolution. It can be defined as material antipatriarchalism, insofar as it questions the material power relations between the sexes and opposes the formal antipatriarchalism of Locke. Material antipatriarchalism is strictly linked to the female irruption into the emerging public sphere during the great rebellion of 1640s, which concurs with women's economic and legal agency. Therefore, together with the political and religious debate, legal treatises, conduct books, female petitions and prophecies of XVII and early XVIII century are taken into account in order to reconstruct the judicial and social context to which Astell belongs. Against this backdrop Astell elaborates her own political theology, which entails a critique of toleration policies and of the dissenters' and Whigs' attempt to reinterpret the English past. Astell theorizes the necessity of political order, whereby all power is held by God and the King, His vicar on earth. Absolute divine authority, in turn, paves the way to the radical equality of all souls in front of God, a condition that makes women's subordination to men unsustainable. The claim to women's equality is strongly reflected in the educational debate, where Astell intervenes proposing the creation of a philosophical-religious retirement that should lead to a separate public sphere able to prepare women to confront the male-run society.