THE QUESTION ABOUT A COMMON GOOD IN THE SECULAR STATE

Abstract

What we witness today is secularism in church and state relation and moral pluralism in society. The modern state separates state and church, if not on all the levels, surely on the level of separation of governmental and religious institutions. State and church relation is based on the principles of equality, liberty and neutrality. But secularism of state means not the end of religion! Before we look on a conscientious objection of individual subject in modern secular state, we try to analyze concept of common good with his historical context. If the common good is not provided for, people’s individual goods are not sure either. We can therefore see that individual goods cannot be put in opposition to the common good. St. Thomas Aquinas has shown that since every man is part of our common existence, it is impossible for any man to be good without having a good relationship towards the common good. Our aim is to find a role of Christian character of secular society and basic elements of a good secularism for a politic society and the Church in a modern time.

Keywords

• Common good
• secular state
• social teaching of the Church
• conscientious objection of singular person
• public place