摘要:The core of this text lies in a careful and
detailed comparison between the evolution of
religious debate in the United Kingdom and the
parallel process that took place in France
through the course of a ‘long’ nineteenth century
– i.e. from 1800-1914. Both countries
represent to some extent a ‘type’. The United
Kingdom exemplifies the process of secularisation
as this has taken place in the Protestant
countries of Northern Europe, in which the
dominance of religion gradually recedes but
without an overt conflict between religion and
secular power. France, on the other hand,
exemplifies a nation where the concept of la.cité
has emerged in order to ‘manage’ the much
more conscious elimination of religion from
public space (i.e. the state and the school system),
a necessarily conflictual process.