Dear Editor,
In recent editions of en, the word “secularism” has cropped up many times. I led the track on secularism at the Lausanne Congress in Seoul in September 2024, and we worked on a model of analysis which I think clarifies the issues.
- Many European languages prefer the word “secularisation” because this is a process which has been going on for at least five centuries. This requires a sociological approach by observing what is happening exactly and what the statistics indicate. In other words, secular society is first and foremost our mission field.
- Parliaments enact laws which reflect this evolving secular situation so that legislation does not clash with reality. This presupposes philosophical and political debate on the relationship between faiths and public institutions. We are fortunate in France in having a word for this – “la laïcité ” – but there is no equivalent in the English language which tends to use the word “secularism” for this process. This is problematical because a word ending in -ism denotes an ideology and that is not what is involved here.
- However, ideologies do exist within secular society and try to influence policies. Marxism and wokism are two obvious examples. But a person can be totally secular and not be aligned with any ideology as such.
These distinctions are important so that we don’t end up fighting the wrong battles. Our aim as Christians should be to build healthy churches and live spiritually healthy lives in our secular context.
Yours sincerely,
David Brown
Pastor in Paris, France
