John Locke’s “Unease”: The Theoretical Foundation of the Modern Separation of Church and State

• Published date: 01 October 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231223567
• Author: Haig Patapan,Jeffrey Sikkenga
• Date: 01 October 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917231223567

Political Theory

2024, Vol. 52(5) 808 –833

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/00905917231223567

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Article

John Locke’s “Unease”:

The Theoretical

Foundation of the

Modern Separation of

Church and State

Haig Patapan1 and Jeffrey Sikkenga2

Abstract

John Locke is acknowledged to be one of the theoretical founders of

the separation of church and state, a distinguishing feature of modern

liberal democracies. Though Locke’s arguments for the merits of such

separation have been subject to extensive investigation, his argument for

its feasibility has remained relatively unexamined. This article argues that

Locke was confident that separation of church and state can successfully

be implemented in all times and places because of his epistemological and

psychological insights that human beings are moved to act by unease and

that separating church and state removes the unease that causes religiously

based political instability. We conclude by noting that Locke’s understanding

of unease is foundational for his larger ambition to secure political liberty.

Keywords

Locke, unease, religion, separation of church and state, liberalism

Separation of church and state has long been recognized as an essential

aspect of a liberal political order and has been promoted as such around the

world. Yet separation has been increasingly challenged both by illiberal

1School of Government and International Relations, Brisbane, Griffith University, QLD, Australia

2Ashland University, Ashland, OH

Corresponding Author:

Haig Patapan, Professor, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith

University, Australia.

Email: h.patapan@griffith.edu.au

1223567PTXXXX10.1177/00905917231223567Political TheoryPatapan and Sikkenga

research-article2024

Patapan and Sikkenga 809

states who see it as an innovation that poses a danger to political stability

and from within liberal democracies themselves, where many wonder if

such separation fulfills its promise of being good for both politics and reli-

gion (Owen 2007).

These concerns were anticipated by John Locke, acknowledged as one

of the most important theoretical founders of the modern conception of

separation of church and state.1 In A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689),

Locke sets out his clearest and most well-known argument for separating

church and state, claiming that “[t]he care of Souls cannot belong to the

Civil Magistrate, because his Power consists only in outward force; but true

and saving Religion consists in the inward persuasion of the Mind, without

which nothing can be acceptable to God” (Locke 1983, 5).2 While his argu-

ment for the propriety of separation takes over three-quarters of Letter, he

ends by discussing its feasibility—that is, the efficacy of separation in

securing and enhancing peace and prosperity. Scholars sometimes treat this

as an aside, but Locke regards it as vital for his argument because even

many of those in England inclined to favor religious freedom believed that

the magistrate had to have the power to impose religious uniformity—at

least in “matters indifferent”—in order to prevent churches from becoming

“Conventicles, and Nurseries of Factions and Seditions” (LCT, para. 74,

53).3 Indeed, according to Locke, this political concern was “thought to

afford the strongest matter of Objection against this Doctrine of Toleration”

(LCT, para. 74, 53; emphasis added). Hence, he discusses not only the

“Necessity” of separation of church and state but also its “Advantage”

(LCT, para. 5).

This concern with the effects of religious liberty on political stability cer-

tainly had been an important consideration for Locke himself, with his views

evolving over time. In fact, it was the issue of religiously based political

conflict that spurred Locke in 1660 to pen his first writing intended for the

public, the Two Tracts on Government (1967). Written in response to a 1659

pamphlet by Edward Bagshawe in favor of toleration, Locke’s Two Tracts

argued—much like Hobbes—that for the sake of civil peace, the sovereign

has the authority to impose articles of faith or modes of worship in “matters

indifferent” (and the power to determine what those matters are). But by the

time he wrote his “Essay Concerning Toleration” in 1667, Locke had come to

1. See, generally, Bowser and Muse (2007); Witte (2006). For the theologi-

cal debates that informed Locke’s views, see, for example, Harris (1994) and

Marshall (2006).

2. References to A Letter Concerning Toleration (Locke 1983) will be cited as LCT

with paragraph and page number.

3. For a discussion of Locke’s conception of toleration, see Nadon (2006, 2014).