In this chapter, Jean Baubérot explores one of the major models of the appropriate nature of the relationship between religion and the state. He explains in detail the French lay approach to the place of religion in public life. Drawing on a historical account of laïcité (French-style separation of church and state) over the two centuries since the French Revolution, Baubérot’s chapter illustrates how deeply this historical background has molded the current place religion holds in the public sphere within France. In contrast to the United States and northern Europe, where “religion has been integral to the emergence of modernity,” in France “modernity erected itself against religion.”75 The historical conflict over religion’s place in French society has produced an acute sensitivity verging on allergic reaction to any reference to religion in the public sphere. Though some manifestations of traditional religion manage to avoid this reaction, the general picture in France is one in which society remains leery of religion in public space. In effect, the nineteenth-century restructuring of public institutions outside the control of religion produced a new “secular clergy” of professionals in fields such as education and medicine. While Baubérot’s chapter was completed before the latest round of public debate on the Islamic scarf in France, his chapter helps contextualize French disquiet over “the veil affair.” It also helps to explain attitudes toward Jehovah’s Witnesses and other smaller groups. Without condoning some of the more prejudiced reactions, Baubérot indicates that these can be understood at least in part by the loss of prestige within the ranks of the “secular clergy” in areas such as education and medicine. Other aspects of the French reaction, including the rise of government subsidized anti-sect associations and the concomitant stigmatization of numerous smaller groups, no doubt stem from fear of the unknown— from “a sense of helplessness in the face of so many new sectarian movements that we do not yet understand.”76 In the end, these issues are taking on new forms as a result of new social pressures coming from increased pluralization and the heightened role of the media. These are obviously forces that are exerting a transformative influence on relations of religion, state, and society not only in France, but around the globe.
75 Baubérot, chapter 18, 441.
76 Ibid., 452.
