The religion-politics separation framework is Christian-specific, not universal

Evidence

This formulation of the problems posed by the relations between religion and politics, and the possible solutions to those problems, arise from Christian, not universal, principles and experience. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1541

Categorization

• XREF: Core of Lewis’s argument — links directly to Said’s critique that Orientalist scholarship posits a unitary ‘Islam’ incapable of secularization, and to overall claims about how the West made Islam legible as an undifferentiated other. — connects to: Lewis and Huntington originated the thesis that Islam never separated religion from politics — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 326; Apartheid’s political doctrine was generalized from a theological principle of separate churches; Church-state separation alone does not define secularism’s novelty — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 18 (+11 more)
• SEED: Angle: how ‘the separation of church and state is a Western achievement Islam lacks’ functions as a civilizational-progress narrative — useful for an essay on the politics of comparative religious claims.
• QUESTION: Lewis claims Islamic tradition perceives religion and politics as unified — but does the historical record (e.g., the very notion of sharia vs. sultanic law, the ulama vs. rulers) support a total absence of distinction, or only a different arrangement? Worth checking against revisionist scholarship.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Lewis and Huntington originated the thesis that Islam never separated religion from politics — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 326; Apartheid’s political doctrine was generalized from a theological principle of separate churches; Church-state separation alone does not define secularism’s novelty — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 18 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Secular societies can coexist with religion through state separation. #complicates (0.82)
• Religion, State, and party form an indissoluble unity rather than separable priority #complicates (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 992