Secularism: from the concept to the models

Authors

  • Jesús María Osés Gorraiz

Keywords:

Laicism, relativism, anticlericalism, atheism, State neutrality, liberty of conscience, equality

Abstract

In relatively stable and homogeneous societies (mostly European) the principle of republican laicism was maintained without major problems as a solution to the issue of what role religion should play in the public sphere and its institutions. The phenomenon of immigration has sufficiently altered this social stability as to make us confront the new realities with a finer conceptual framework. The republican and plural-liberalism models offers different perspectives to address the problem, because a pure model of laicism is absent in complex societies.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES