Bill,
I'm not certain what Steven's point would be on this one, but I read him to be arguing that separation of church and state in the west is an emergent property of western society. Not inherent in either religion dogma or practice. If so, I agree with that.
The number of religiously grounded states in the history of the west is, quite frankly, almost too numerous to mention. As for the opposite in the contemporary world, Islamic societies with a separation of church and state, I'm not too well informed. If I were looking for such, I would start with Turkey, perhaps some in SE Asia, Indonesia, etc.
As for doctrine, no doubt doctrinal justification for either the presence or absence of church state distinctions can be found in Islam, as, of course, can be found in western religious traditions. |
