LITMIR.BIZ

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under Louis XIV in 1685 reestablished the union of the throne and altar which resulted in persecution of the Huguenots who fought for the principle of the freedom of conscience and religious liberty.

      The Law of Separation of Churches and State (Loi concernant la Séparation des Églises et de l’État) was enacted in 1905 in fulfillment of the French Revolution’s attempt to remove the Roman Catholic Church as the State religion. The law abrogated the 1801 Napoleonic Concordat with the Vatican, disestablished the Roman Catholic Church, ended centuries of religious turmoil, declared state neutrality in religious matters, and continues as a subject of debate and dissension one hundred years later with the emergence of Islam as the second largest religion in France. The question at the turn of the twentieth century concerned the Roman Catholic Church’s compatibility with democracy. That same question is being asked of Islam in the twenty-first century.

      1. Taylor, Secular Age, 2.

      2. Taylor, Secular Age, 25.

      Introduction

In his book Le Château de Ma Mère (My Mother’s Castle),3 Marcel Pagnol recounts the childhood story of young Marcel (b. 1896) who debated within himself the existence of God. This took place upon his uncle’s return from midnight mass one Christmas Eve. During the service the uncle prayed that God would send the family faith. “Of course,” Marcel told himself, “I knew that God did not exist, but I was not completely sure. There are lots of people who attend mass, and even people who are serious. My uncle himself speaks to him often yet he’s not crazy.” Upon further reflection, he arrives at a conclusion which he admits is not really rational: “That God, who does not exist for us, certainly exists for others: like the king of England, who exists only for the English.”4

      This quaint story about a young French boy illustrates what many French people in fact believed at that time and sheds light on the contemporary conflict in French society concerning the place of religion and belief in God. During this period, France enacted the Law of Separation on December 9, 1905, which formalized the rupture of Church and State. The law of 1905 guaranteed liberty of conscience to believe or not believe, and the free exercise of religion for those so inclined. The State would no longer provide subsidies for the four recognized religions—Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Jewish—and would practice neutrality in order that no religion be favored above another. The Vatican vigorously protested this law while Catholics in France, both clergy and laity, were themselves divided in their acceptance of the law’s provisions. Decades later the French Constitutions of 1946 and 1958 reinforced the substance of the law of 1905 in their first article: “France is an indivisible, laïque, democratic and social Republic. It ensures the equality of all citizens before the law without distinction of origin, race or religion. It respects all beliefs. Its organization is decentralized.”

One must look to the law of 1905 as a pivotal historical point, setting in motion a particular French conception of separation of Church and State (or in this case separation of the Church from the State). The Law of Separation was enacted in the context of centuries of Roman Catholic domination, the sixteenth-century Reformation and Wars of Religion, the French Revolution of 1789, the rise to power of Napoleon and the 1801 Concordat with the Vatican, the restoration of the monarchy (1814–1830), and the intense struggle between clerical and anticlerical forces in the early years of the Third Republic (1870–1940) highlighted in the Dreyfus Affair at the end of the nineteenth century. This book is focused on understanding the French concept of laïcité and its historical development and how laïcité shaped French society in the twentieth century. We will also examine the resurgent debate over the disputed meanings and applications of laïcité in the twenty-first century in light of challenges from Islam and the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism (intégrisme islamiste).5

Professor of anthropology John Bowen presents an interview with a high-ranking French official in the Central Bureau of Religion (Bureau central des cultes). The official commented on the differences between religion in France and the United States. He recounted complaints received along the spectrum from Scientologists to evangelical ministers who felt that the system of laïcité should be changed. His response was simply, “They do not understand French history. Even the French Scientologists with whom I meet, even if they understand it some, they say that they cannot explain it to their American colleagues. So are we supposed to change our laws because you have trouble explaining France?”6

      In the century following the law of 1905 there have been endless debates, essays, and books discussing, debating, and dissecting the law of 1905 and its implications for modern society. There are those who return to the law of 1905 as a touchstone or a lens through which they view and interpret current events and challenges to laïcité. There are others who assert that the law is often misapplied when it results in the suppression of the place of religion in French history, considers religion as a subject taboo in public schools, and leads to laws deemed discriminatory toward certain religions. The growth and influence of Islam in France has been the single major factor in a renewed debate on laïcité and on the question of the compatibility of Islam in a laïque Republic.

Despite the wealth of research on French religious history and on the concept of laïcité and modern challenges it presents in a pluralistic society, relatively little has been written on laïcité in English. At the outset, it should be noted that there is disagreement about whether the term laïcité should be used or its English equivalents secularism or secularization. Olivier Roy distinguishes between secularization as a phenomenon of society that does not require any political implementation and laïcité as a political choice which defines in an authoritative and legal manner the place of religion in society.7 He argues that laïcité is specific to France and incomprehensible in Great Britain where customs agents can wear the veil, as well in the United States, “where no president can be elected without speaking of God.”8 The word laïcité itself was not used in the law of 1905 but is found in the French Constitutions of 1946 and 1958. Patrick Cabanel suggests that, although some claim laïcité is untranslatable in other languages, the word national might be an acceptable synonym in certain contexts.9 His book is an excellent source for the meaning of words related to laïcité.

From a historical perspective, Jacques Barzun’s monumental work From Dawn to Decadence begins with the year 1500 AD and sets broad historical parameters for this volume. He affirms that “textbooks from time immemorial have called it [1500] the beginning of the Modern Era.”10 Barzun considers that the years 1500–1660 were “dominated by the issue of what to believe about religion,” the years 1661–1789 “by what to do about the status of the individual and the mode of government,” and the years 1790–1920 “by what means to achieve social and economic equality.”11 Following Barzun’s taxonomy, the first modern period opened in Europe with the Reformation in Germany under Martin Luther in 1517 and provides a convenient reference point to understand the foment of history in forming the French consciousness and setting the scene for future, interminable clashes between Church, State, and citizens.

Luther’s Reformation in Germany crossed into France where the seeds of Reformation were alternately sown and uprooted. Donald Kelley, in his book The Beginning of Ideology and Holt in Renaissance and Reformation in France, examine the influences of the Reformation and the religious conflicts which arose.12 Kelley has a chapter in which he demonstrates the important role of printing in disseminating both Reformation and counter-Reformation ideology, where the “war of words” preceded the Wars of Religion. Philip Benedict and Virginia Reinburg likewise present the importance of the printing press in the dissemination of the evangelical faith in France through the writings of Luther and Calvin.13 Holt explains how the Wars of Religion “proved to be the single most dangerous threat to the French state and monarchy before the Revolution of 1789.”14 These books provide essential historical elements on the early clashes between Protestantism and Catholicism which become crucial in understanding the growing desire for the promised Republican liberty in the 1789 French Revolution.

French religious historian Alain Boyer makes a significant contribution in a chapter on Protestants

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