This book brings together discussions from the conference on ‘secularism: a question of boundaries’ and invites attendees to reflect on the separation of church and state at a time when it is faced with new challenges.

Summary:

Secularism is one of the values, even a cornerstone, of the French Republic. Although widely accepted, it is still a subject of debate, now focused on the consequences of the national adoption of secularism. Indeed, secularism, seen in terms of the separation of church and state since the law of 1905, has changed, to the benefit of some.
The conference, organised by the Institute in Space, Territories, Culture and Communications Law at Toulouse 1 Capitole University, invites attendees to reflect on the separation of church and state at a time when it is faced with new challenges. The central focus is one of boundaries: boundaries that the separation of church and state has itself established itself between the public sphere (the state, its institutions and its services) and the private sphere (individuals, groups and communities), and which are today in dispute. Territorial boundaries, questioned by secularism, are not applied in certain areas of France and sometimes applied in different ways at the local level.
Should we adapt secularism to the new relationships between faith and politics and relax the principle of separation, or revert to the universalism of French Republic-style secularism? That is the choice we now have to make, and one that has been considered by historians, legal experts, philosophers, and specialists in political science and education.