The Invisible Border: The Vanishing Line of Separation Between Church and State (Robert Yelle)

Secular liberalism requires a separation of church and state, so
as to guarantee both the security of the polity and religious
freedom. However, where to draw the line between religion and
politics remains the subject of debate, with a growing number who
claim it is not possible, and may not even be desirable, to do
so. This problem is hardly new. As Robert Yelle recounts, it has
roots in the early modern period, when the foundations of the
liberal, secular constitution were laid by such figures as Thomas
Hobbes and John Locke in England. Where Hobbes argued for a state
church and a civil religion, Locke argued for a stricter division
of labor between church and state, reprising older formulas from
Christian theology. Revisiting this history sheds light on our
current predicament.


This episode is a cooperation between TheoPodcast and the
Catholic Academy in Berlin.
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