Strong Religion and Weak Minorities: A Cautionary Tale from Europe

In this chapter, I argue, in the first place, that the de-privatization of religion constitutes a major challenge to the essential tenets of the Enlightenment projects. In the second place, I maintain that de-privatized religion is detrimental to religious freedom and religious and cultural pluralism as it tends to strengthen the privileges of majority denominations and relegate religious and non-religious minorities to the democratic periphery. Moreover, I posit that even majority denominations do not benefit from de-privatization, at least as religions, because de-privatization produces the secularization of religion, weakens the autonomy of churches and reinforces their dependence on the state.