Cavanaugh om religion

I sin bok The Myth of Religous Violence, argumenterar William Cavanaugh bland annat för följande:

"The first conclusion is that there is no transhistorical or transcultural concept of religion. Religion has a history, and what counts as religion and what does not in any given context depends on different configurations of power and authority. The second conclusion is that the attempt to say that there is a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion that is separable from secular phenomena is itself part of a particular configuration of power, that of the modern, liberal nation-state as it developed in the West. In this context, religion is constructed as transhistorical, transcultural, essentially interior, and essentially distict from public, secular rationality. To construe Christianity as a religion, therefor, helps to separate loyalty to God from one´s public loyalty to the nation-state. The idea that religion has a tencdency to cause violence - and is therefore to be removed from public power - is one type of this essentialist construction of religion." s.59

Tänk vad annorlunda debatten om religion i den liberala demokratin skulle låta om dessa insikter fick sjunka in bland politiker, journalister och tyckare.