Search

The article discusses the history of the concept of the "secular," in contrast to the religious or sacred. Contrasting and overlapping roles posited for religious and secular institutions (church and state) are discussed in the thought of Christian theologian St. Augustine and through the Middle Ages and Reformation to early modern political writers like John Locke and James Madison. The rise of secularism as a distinct ideology in the late 19th century is then discussed, as is the idea of the separation of church and state in the United States up to the election of President Barack Obama.