Liberal
societies conventionally treat religion as unique under the law,
requiring both special protection (as in guarantees of free worship) and
special containment (to keep religion and the state separate). But
recently this idea that religion requires a legal exception has come
under fire from those who argue that religion is no different from any
other conception of the good, and the state should treat all such
conceptions according to principles of neutrality and equal liberty.
Cécile Laborde agrees with much of this liberal egalitarian critique,
but she argues that a simple analogy between the good and religion
misrepresents the complex relationships among religion, law, and the
state. Religion serves as more than a statement of belief about what is
true, or a code of moral and ethical conduct. It also refers to
comprehensive ways of life, political theories of justice, modes of
voluntary association, and vulnerable collective identities.
Disaggregating
religion into its various dimensions, as Laborde does, has two clear
advantages. First, it shows greater respect for ethical and social
pluralism by ensuring that whatever treatment religion receives from the
law, it receives because of features that it shares with nonreligious
beliefs, conceptions, and identities. Second, it dispenses with the
Western, Christian-inflected conception of religion that liberal
political theory relies on, especially in dealing with the issue of
separation between religion and state. As a result,
Liberalism's Religion
offers a novel answer to the question: Can Western theories of
secularism and religion be applied more universally in non-Western
societies?
