Religious Freedom Originated from Biblical Legal Tradition, Not from Secularization
Source: https://www.facebook.com/americanspectator/. "Did Religion Create Religious Freedom? Rethinking the Origins of Western Liberty | The American Spectator | USA News and Politics." August 9, 2026. spectator.org
The Gist
The author argues that religious freedom in the West didn't come from people abandoning religion, but from scholars like Grotius rediscovering ancient Jewish law, which taught that nations only needed to follow a few basic universal laws while otherwise governing themselves differently. This discovery ended centuries of religious wars in Europe and influenced America's founders, and the author claims we need to return to this religious foundation—not secularism or new coercive ideologies—to defend freedom today.
Conclusion
Western religious freedom emerged not from the decline of religion but from a deep engagement with biblical (specifically Jewish) legal tradition, and preserving this freedom today requires re-engaging with religion rather than abandoning it or replacing it with coercive ideologies.
Premises
- The common narrative that religious freedom arose from religion's declining influence (via scientific progress and secularization) is incomplete or mistaken.
- In France, the revolutionary attempt to suppress religion led to tyranny (Jacobin terror) and later state-controlled religion under Napoleon, not genuine religious freedom.
- In Holland and Britain, religious freedom emerged instead from Hugo Grotius and Dutch scholars' serious study of Jewish law, particularly the Seven Noahide Laws.
- Grotius argued that God's model for Israel required only minimal universal law (Noahide laws) for non-Jews, allowing diverse nations to maintain distinct civil orders without requiring religious uniformity.
- This framework enabled the Peace of Westphalia and the modern Western international order, ending religious wars without requiring abandonment of religion.
- American founders drew on this same biblical/Israelite model when establishing religious liberty in the U.S.
- Historically, Jewish communities' persistent refusal to abandon their law under persecution demonstrated that religious diversity could coexist with civil order, which contributed to the intellectual shift toward tolerance.
- Today's ideological movements demanding conformity (implicitly including radical Islamism and secular progressivism) represent the same anti-freedom impulse that religious tolerance historically overcame.
Assumptions
- That the intellectual influence of Grotius and Dutch scholars on Jewish law was a primary causal driver of Western religious freedom, rather than one contributing factor among many.
- That the American founders' religious freedom principles were substantially derived from this Grotian/biblical framework rather than Enlightenment secular philosophy or other sources.
- That religious engagement (rather than secular reasoning) is necessary for sustaining freedom, implying secular defenses of liberty are insufficient or unstable.
- That the historical persecution of Jewish law by Christianity and its eventual reconsideration is analogous to and continuous with modern ideological conflicts.
- That there is a coherent 'deep humane religion' shared across traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) that commands freedom of worship as a core tenet.