On Separating Church and State<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Separating Church and State\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\",\"name\":\"On Separating Church and State\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Separating Church and State\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Separating Church and State","description":"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Separating Church and State","og_description":"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/","name":"On Separating Church and State","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-17T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"Separation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism). After all, he","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Separating Church and State"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":18688,"date":"2017-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=411"},"modified":"2017-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"on-separating-church-and-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/02\/on-separating-church-and-state\/","title":{"rendered":"On Separating Church and State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

S<\/span>eparation of church and state, religion and politics, is not \u201csufficient unto itself,\u201d argues Pierre Manent (Beyond Radical Secularism<\/em><\/a>). After all, he points out, citizens are believers, believers citizens, and they don\u2019t cease to be one when they take up the role of the other. Separation \u201csuggests the dangerously clear figure of a reciprocal exteriority, as a plan divided by a line, or a three-dimension figure divided by a plane.\u201d It is more realistic to speak of a \u201creciprocal envelopment of the political form and the regime,\u201d in France, the secular state and a nation \u201cmarked\u201d by Christianity\u201d (62).<\/p>\n

It makes no historical sense to say that the separation of church and state is a fundamental truth of Christianity. If it were, why did it take so long for Christians to discover this fundamental truth. The real political contribution of Christianity is not the separation of church and state. Rather Europeans \u201cunderstood this unprecedented political and religious project through an unprecedented political form: to govern oneself through obedience to God\u2019s benevolent intention, to seek ceaselessly to combine the pride of the citizen, or more generally of the acting human being, and the humility of the Christian.\u201d <\/p>\n

In short, \u201cwhat distinguishes Europe is not the separation between religion and politics, but rather the pursuit of an ever more intimate union between them\u201d (64-5).<\/p>\n

\u201cSeparation\u201d rhetoric proves useful, though. Religion and politics \u201cdesignate the two great stakes that we have become incapable of confronting in order to exclude them from our consideration<\/em>.\u201d It\u2019s an avoidance tactice: \u201cSeparation is a convenient shelter or alibi for Europeans who have refused for generations to pose the questions of politics and of religion without which Europe\u2019s life loses all meaning\u201d (66).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"