archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York

For centuries, Catholicism and secularism in the West have circled one another warily – occasionally in open conflict, more often smoldering in a sort of Cold War-era sense of mutual suspicion and uneasy détente.

Recently, however, both sides have taken tentative steps towards the other. Some secularists have come to regard Catholicism as a bulwark against several currents they regard as worrisome: a frivolous relativism that makes any truth claims suspect; a fundamentalist brand of Christianity that continually surprises secularists with its social capital, for example in clashes between evolution and creationism; and the sudden rise of Islam across much of Europe.