Secularity
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin saeculum, "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself and fleshed out through Christian history into the modern era.[1] In the medieval period there were even secular clergy.[2][3][4] Furthermore, secular and religious entities were not separated in the medieval period, but coexisted and interacted naturally.[5][6] The word "secular" has a meaning very similar to profane as used in a religious context.
This article is about secularity in the sense of being unrelated to religion. For clergy who are not monks, see Secular clergy. For the legal status of countries in relation to religion, see Secular state.
Today, anything that is not directly connected with religion may be considered secular.[7] Secularity does not mean "anti-religious", but "unrelated to religion". Many activities in religious bodies are secular, and though there are multiple types of secularity or secularization, most do not lead to irreligiosity.[8] Linguistically, a process by which anything becomes secular is named secularization, though the term is mainly reserved for the secularization of society; and any concept or ideology promoting the secular may be termed secularism, a term generally applied to the ideology dictating no religious influence on the public sphere. Scholars recognize that secularity is structured by Protestant models of Christianity, shares a parallel language to religion, and intensifies Protestant features such as iconoclasm, skepticism towards rituals, and emphasizes beliefs.[9] In doing so, secularism perpetuates Christian traits under a different name.[9]
Most cultures around the world do not have tension or dichotomous views of religion and secularity.[10] Since religion and secular are both Western concepts that were formed under the influence of Christian theology, other cultures do not necessarily have words or concepts that resemble or are equivalent to them.[11]
Definitions[edit]
Historically, the word secular was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin that would relate to any mundane endeavour.[12] However, the term, saecula saeculorum (saeculōrum being the genitive plural of saeculum) as found in the New Testament in the Vulgate translation (c. 410) of the original Koine Greek phrase εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων (eis toùs aionas ton aiṓnōn), e.g. at Galatians 1:5, was used in the early Christian church (and is still used today), in the doxologies, to denote the coming and going of the ages, the grant of eternal life, and the long duration of created things from their beginning to forever and ever.[13] Secular and secularity derive from the Latin word saeculum which meant "of a generation, belonging to an age" or denoted a period of about one hundred years.[12] The Christian doctrine that God exists outside time led medieval Western culture to use secular to indicate separation from specifically religious affairs and involvement in temporal ones.
