The Importance of Church in Europe's Foundation and its Contrast with Islam

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The separation of secular and religious authority is the biggest difference between Europe and Islam. In Europe, this separation allows for different ideas about governance and the ability to change laws and governing principles. In contrast, in Islam, the fusion of theology with governance and divine rule makes it difficult to change laws. This difference between the two is still relevant today, with the church playing a secondary role in European politics while the Muslim world struggles to define the proper spheres and transform governance.

When it comes to the development of Western Europe there was religion and then there was science. That is how the story is generally told but Anna Gryzmala Busse believes that modern Europe owes more to the religious part of that than is generally appreciated. She has written Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State (Princeton UP, 2023) and talks to Owen Bennett Jones about religion and the European state.

Owen Bennett-Jones is a freelance journalist and writer. A former BBC correspondent and presenter he has been a resident foreign correspondent in Bucharest, Geneva, Islamabad, Hanoi and Beirut. He is recently wrote a history of the Bhutto dynasty which was published by Yale University Press.

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