From Eternity to Here: In Search of the Origins of Secularism

USC Legal Studies Research Papers Series No. 17-20

39 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2017 Last revised: 25 Sep 2017

See all articles by Nomi Maya Stolzenberg

Nomi Maya Stolzenberg

University of Southern California - Gould School of Law

Date Written: September 20, 2017

Abstract

This article puts forth a hypothesis about the theological origins of liberalism and secularism that offers an alternative to standard accounts of the intellectual origins/theological foundations of liberalism and of political theology which see the two as separate and mutually exclusive. On my hypothesis, the emergency theory of the state associated with political theology and the liberal theory of the state are (or were at their point of origin) the same thing. The hypothesis is that the theory that the state must be secular (and must be founded on principles of due process and religious pluralism, which come to be associated with liberalism) derives from a particular tradition of thought which itself derives from the theological doctrine of divine accommodation, versions of which are found in both Christian and Jewish sources. Building on the work of Amos Funkenstein and others who have shown how modern scientific thought derives from this “secularist theology,” I propose that modern political and legal thought does, too. More specifically, I aim to show how the liberal theory of the state derived from theological propositions about the divinely authorized need to suspend divine law and replace it with human legal institutions that accommodate to human needs and imperfections, including the limitations of the human mind. I thereby propose an answer to the mystery of how Christianity became, in Samuel Moyn’s words, “terrestrialized,” that is, how it “birthed liberalism” and secularism, which locates that birthplace in the doctrine of divine accommodation and the theological tradition of accomodationist thought.

Suggested Citation

Stolzenberg, Nomi Maya, From Eternity to Here: In Search of the Origins of Secularism (September 20, 2017). USC Legal Studies Research Papers Series No. 17-20, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3040282 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3040282

Nomi Maya Stolzenberg (Contact Author)

University of Southern California - Gould School of Law ( email )

699 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

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