Institutional Secularism in Thought of Marsilius of Padua

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

Abstract

This article examines the concept of secularism in the thought
of Marsilius of Padua. Marsilius, employing two dimensions of
the Christian theology (i.e. trans-political and political essence
of the theology), presents an interpretation of the Holy Scripture
that leads to “depoliticization of theological authority”. We
call this theory “Institutional Secularism”; because it implies
the separation of the church institution as church institution
from secular coercive power. This article shows that the concept
of secularism, in its historical origin, is inseparable from
peculiar properties of Christian theology. In the first place, secularism
is a “Christian affair”.

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