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Religion and National Life in France
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12978 |
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Section : |
Modern Thought
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1987 |
3,861 Words |
| Author
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Norman Ravitch
Norman Ravitch is professor of history and dean at the
University of California at Riverside. |
Americans are quite used to religion as a purely private matter. Public officials are expected, especially when running for office, to say complimentary things about religious institutions and values, but one does not expect them to endorse any particular set of beliefs or to refer to the influence of their faith upon their public performance, past, present, or future. President Dwight Eisenhower was quoted at one point as being in favor of religion, "and I don't care which religion it is!" President John Kennedy diffused suspicions about the religious obligations of a Catholic president by stating that Catholicism would have absolutely no influence on his decision making or on the execution of the responsibilities of high office. He was, in effect, telling the public that his religion was irrelevant, and thus harmless. More recently, Mario Cuomo and Geraldine Ferraro have come into conflict with the archbishop of New York for their views that Catholic moral teachings could be left on the doorstep in the exercise of high office by Catholics. They too are saying that Catholicism is irrelevant and therefore harmless. This seems to be the American way, except for the recent rise of some on the fundamentalist or evangelical Right who are claiming that their particular beliefs are not irrelevant. The evangelicals now occupy in secular America the position once held by Catholics in Protestant America, and their opponents regard their faith as anything but harmless.
America is unique in its historic separation of church and state and in its hospitality to a multitude of religious groups and sects. Most other nations have a past involving the establishment of a state religion and the persecution of dissenters from the established religious order. Yet such nations have not necessarily escaped the effects of secularization and modernization. As Peter L. Berger made clear in The Sacred Canopy over a decade ago, secularization and modernization everywhere lead to the privatization of religion.
Even in France, with a long tradition of church-state union, privatization and marginalization of religious faith and institutions are apparent. From very different experiences and traditions, America and France have converged in the place they respectively assign to religion in their national life.
The French Monarchy
Those familiar with the French monarchy at the time of its apogee during the reign of Louis XIV may recall that when the king attended daily Mass in the royal chapel at Versailles, his courtiers respectfully faced their king with
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