Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Reading Tocqueville in Cairo

Reading Tocqueville in Cairo

Last updated on: February 4, 2013 at 9:09 am by Thomas Albert Howard

Reading Tocqueville in Cairo 2013-02-04T09:09:10-04:00 Thomas Albert Howard

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If Alexis de Tocqueville were alive today to witness the churning unrest and revolutions sweeping North Africa and Middle East in recent years, he would observe numerous contrasts with what he saw in America in the 1830s. But permit me to speculate on one similarity that might catch his eye. Unlike the French Revolution, which pitted freedom against religion, he would notice that forces of religion and freedom, in the early American republic and across the Arabic world today, were and are complexly intertwined.

As Tocqueville memorably wrote in Democracy in America: “Upon my arrival in the United States it was the religious aspect of the country that first struck my eye. As I prolonged my stay, I perceived the great political consequences that flowed from this new state of things. In France I had seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom almost always move in contrary directions. But in America I found them united intimately with one another: they reigned together on the same soil.”

To many intellectuals shaped by the European experience of modernity, recent events in the Middle East–which have included demonstrators chanting “God is great,” protests scheduled after Friday prayers, and appeals to the Qur’an to affirm human dignity–were not the way history was supposed to turn out. Once upon a time, figures such as Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim, among others, gave birth to what in the academy came to be known as the “secularization thesis”—the positing of a tight link between political modernization and secularization. But as the sociologist Peter Berger has noted, the secularization thesis was “essentially mistaken”; it was “an extrapolation of the European experience to the rest of the world,” leading many scholars beguiled by the prestige of Western social science to underestimate the global staying power of religion.

For much of modern history, the American experiment in religious liberty and America’s comparatively high levels of belief have posed a riddle to the secularist European imagination. As Karl Marx once put it, “North America is pre-eminently the country of religiosity, but since the existence of religion is the existence of a defect, the source of this defect must be sought in the nature of the political order itself.” More recently, David Martin has observed, educated Europeans often view the religious field in America not in light of its own provenance, but as a case of “arrested development” when compared to European secularist benchmarks.

When political modernity violently descended upon the Middle East in the aftermath of World War I, it was by and large not the American model of religious liberty that stood at the disposal of political reformers, but what the Turkish political scientist Ahmet T. Kuru has called “assertive secularism,” which took its cue from the French Revolutionary tradition, in general, and the secularist laws of church-state separation enacted in France in 1905, in particular. (This imported modernity often came with a heavy dose of nationalism as well.) The towering example, of course, were the Kemalist reforms in Turkey of the 1920s, which imposed a draconian secularism—cribbed directly from recent French history–on the collapsed Ottoman Empire, which prior to the war exercised suzerainty over much of the Arabic world. The Turkish word for secularism (laiklik) comes directly from the French, laïcité.

Moreover, in many countries today, Arab societies associate secularism with postcolonial autocratic regimes that subjugated their populations to the cause of Arab nationalism. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s Tunsia and Hosni Mubarak’s Eygpt epitomized this reality. Thus for decades, many in the Middle East, not unreasonably, have felt secularism was joined at the hip with corruption, dictatorship, and nepotism. Not surprisingly, many have regarded Islam as an alternative source of personal meaning and political inspiration.

Times change, of course. In Turkey today, the legacy of Kemalism is in retreat as liberals and religion-friendly moderates, such as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, argue for a middle path between militant secularism and militant Islam. (Erdogan, a man not without his shortcomings, has in fact spoken of wanting “laiklik American-style”.) In Europe, too, the American religious experiment—though still often caricatured in high-brow circles—has begun to receive more sympathetic engagement and a variety of more nuanced, “Tocquevillean” voices have come on the scene.

In France, challengers to the status quo of laïcité and the 1905 law of church-state separation have recently argued for greater public visibility of religious belief and less hostility on the part of the state toward religious actors in society. The historian Jean Baubérot, for example, has argued that the day is long past when one needs to fear a zero-sum game between anticlerical secularists and nostalgics for a Catholic Ancien Régime. Present-day realities of immigration and globalization should lead to a loosening of militant secularism and a more fluid, open-ended process of negotiation and dialogue with religious currents in society. Without these, he fears, many Muslim immigrants and some French Christians will be tempted to measure their worth by intransigence and withdrawal, not by their ability to interact peaceably with civil society. Similarly, Jean-Paul Williame, a leading sociologist of French secularism, has argued that France today stands in need of a “more secular secularism” (laïcité plus laïque), which would be less “confessional,” “modern American,” and more open to “a certain return of religion to the public sphere” than France’s traditional secularism.

Most remarkably of all, the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, the eminence grise of European enlightenment values, has in recent years spoken of the reality of the “post-secular” and the limits of a one-size-fits-all secularism that compels religious believers to articulate their intuitions about morality and the good life in an idiom foreign and often adverse to their deepest convictions. “[T]he democratic state,” he writes, “must not pre-emptively reduce the polyphonic complexity of the diverse public voices, because it cannot know whether it is not otherwise cutting society off from scarce resources for the generation of meanings and shaping identities. Particularly with regard to social relations, religious traditions possess the power to convincingly articulate moral sensitivities and solidaristic intuitions.”

To be sure, the legacy of Kemalism—or “Mubarakism”–will not vanish immediately across the Arabic world—at least if one understands the term to suggest fear-mongering among old-guard leaders against popular religious sentiment in the public square. And it is not lost on anyone that darker, seductive versions of Islam abound and crave power. (One should not confuse the Muslim Brotherhood with the Methodists!) But, historically, these two antipodes—secularist/nationalist political fear-mongering and Islamism–have only fed upon one another. The challenge of the future—and it is a daunting one–remains to nourish a sane middle ground, deflating extremities by giving religious concerns a more centrist, democratic public voice—and a voice not hostile to minorities, such as the Copts in Egypt.

With the distorting lens of the secularization thesis exposed and the viability of assertive secularism under scrutiny, the American religious experiment; Tocqueville, one of its greatest interpreters; and—surprise, surprise—many among Europe’s present-day intelligentsia stand ready to offer food for thought.

American Religious History

Previous Post

February 1, 2013

THE DARK AGES

Next Post

February 5, 2013 George Whitefield, Confessional Protestant Whipping Boy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Sword of the Spirit represent?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Holy Spirit The power of prayer Faith The Word of God