Secularism and Religious Pluralism

Secularism, broadly understood as the institutional separation of religious authority from state governance, takes markedly different forms across societies. French laicite, formalized in the 1905 Law on the Separation of the Churches and State, mandates strict state neutrality toward all religions and has produced recurring public controversy over the display of religious symbols in state schools and institutions. The United States' First Amendment, ratified in 1791, instead bars Congress from establishing an official religion or prohibiting its free exercise, a model scholars typically describe as separationist without being hostile to religion's presence in public life.