Secularization, the Education of the Heart, and the Modern Nation-State: The Case of Swiss Reformed Protestantism and its European Resonance.

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Abstract

Using the example of the configuration and impact of the Swiss Refor-mation, especially in England, this chapter starts from the assumption that a dis-tinction must be made between formal-institutional and cultural secularization. Itdiscusses the thesis that it is hardly possible to speak of a significant disappear-ance of religiosity as a cultural attitude and uses the example of Rousseau in par-ticular to show how, in the eighteenth century, patriotism, which linked the heartas a central Christian category with the free city-state, became the basis of nation-alism. Nationalism, in turn, was combined with the constitutional state to formthe modern nation-state, which must constantly renew the national identity of itscitizens not least through education.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEducational Secularization within Europe and Beyond
Subtitle of host publicationThe Political Projects of Modernizing Religion through Education Reform
EditorsMette Buchardt
Place of PublicationBerlin
Publisherde Gruyter Oldenbourg
Pages59-83
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 503001 General education

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