A Theological Response to Secularism as Public Policy

Secular public policy comes in two basic versions, namely the Anglo-Saxon and the Francophone versions, roughly reflecting the two versions of the Christian religion-the Protestant and the Catholic respectively-which the public body seeks to put to one side. To the extent that these correlations do hold, a theological interrogation is called for. Such interrogation can focus on what is a constitutive element of democracy, and overlooked in both cases of secularity, namely the value of solidarity. But the enactment of solidarity is a secular religious expression, beyond any 'closed immanence' that might be thought to characterize the public space. In recognizing this, the Christian churches are ethically bound to move to a major reformulation of their basic doctrines and secular society to rethink its displacement of religion.