World Religions › Early modern › The Enlightenment and religion
Religious freedom and church–state separation
Virginia statute 1786; First Amendment 1791· Belief or practice· New movements & secular thought
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
The principle that governments should neither force nor forbid belief, and that church and state should be kept separate.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
Early modern Europe tied each state to one church. After the wars of religion, John Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) argued that belief cannot be compelled. Roger Williams's Rhode Island (1636) and Pennsylvania offered early toleration. Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), steered through by James Madison, ended state support for churches there, and the First Amendment (1791) barred Congress from establishing a religion or banning free exercise. France's 1905 law made laïcité, strict secularism, official.
Why it matters
It let many faiths compete openly, especially in America, and is now a basic human right, written into Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Think of it like
Like a neutral landlord: the state leases equal space to every faith and runs none of the businesses.
Sources and history
The founding texts survive: Locke's letter, the Virginia Statute, the Bill of Rights, France's 1905 law and the UN Declaration; later court rulings show how each was applied.
Questions and debates
Where the line falls is still argued: school prayer, religious exemptions from laws, and public money for religious schools remain contested in many countries.
Connections (4)
▸Wars of religion and the Peace of Westphalia pushed Europe toward Religious freedom and church–state separationMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
A century of Catholic–Protestant wars, from France's wars of religion to the Thirty Years' War, killed millions (estimates vary) without either side winning. Exhausted rulers compromised: the 1598 Edict of Nantes tolerated French Protestants, and the 1648 Peace of Westphalia let rulers choose their state's church while protecting minorities' private worship. Locke and others concluded that forcing belief breeds violence.
When and where
Western and Central Europe, 1562–1648; in England, later turmoil led to the 1689 Toleration Act and Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration the same year.
How do we know?
The treaty and edict texts survive, and Locke and other writers cite the wars explicitly; toleration first appeared as a practical peace deal.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how 'religious' the wars were, given dynastic and political motives, and whether toleration grew from principle or simple exhaustion.
▸The Enlightenment and religion championed Religious freedom and church–state separationHistorical record
The connection
Enlightenment thinkers argued that reason, not force, should govern belief. Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Voltaire's Treatise on Tolerance (1763), and Jefferson and Madison in Virginia held that the state has no power over conscience. Their ideas became law in France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Virginia Statute (1786) and the First Amendment (1791).
When and where
England, France and the American colonies, 1689–1791; Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute in 1777, and Madison won its passage in 1786.
Historical evidence
The American founders cite Locke directly; Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists made famous the phrase 'wall of separation between church and state'.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how much credit goes to Enlightenment skeptics versus devout dissenters, such as Baptists and Roger Williams, who demanded freedom for religious reasons.
▸Religious freedom and church–state separation allowed the rise of New religious movementsMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
With no national church or heresy laws, anyone in the United States could found a church, publish scripture and seek converts. This open 'religious marketplace' produced the Latter-day Saints, Adventists, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1800s. After 1945, new guarantees of religious freedom let new faiths flourish in Japan and South Korea too.
When and where
The United States after 1791, especially upstate New York and New England, 1820s–70s; Japan after 1945, when so many appeared it was called the 'rush hour of the gods'.
How do we know?
Sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark linked religious deregulation with religious growth; earlier, state churches routinely suppressed dissenting sects.
Questions and debates
Not all new faiths need freedom: Bahá'í and Donghak arose under persecution. Scholars debate how much open markets, versus social upheaval, drive new religions.
▸Soviet state atheism suppressed Religious freedom and church–state separationHistorical record
The connection
Soviet constitutions promised freedom of worship but, from 1929, also 'freedom of anti-religious propaganda'. The 1929 law on religious associations banned religious teaching, charity and evangelism. Believers lost jobs, went to prison or were sent to psychiatric hospitals. A 1990 law on freedom of conscience finally reversed these limits.
When and where
USSR, 1929 law and constitutional amendment; the 1975 Helsinki Final Act made religious liberty a Cold War issue; Gorbachev's 1990 law.
Historical evidence
Texts of Soviet laws, samizdat journals such as 'A Chronicle of Current Events', and records gathered by the Keston Institute from 1969.
Questions and debates
Russia's 1997 law favoring 'traditional' religions and its 2017 ban on Jehovah's Witnesses fuel debate over whether religious freedom took root.