I. Questions to the French “Model” in the Postsecular Condition There are a number of compelling reasons why we—in our “postsecular societies”¹—should be paying closer attention to that debate which has been raging in France in recent decades, namely, that concerning the separation of “religion” and “politics.” For one, during the past decade, some Europeans—and especially my Dutch compatriots—have been looking with undisguised jealousy at (what they regard as) the strict simplicity and transparency of the French “model” of secular government, the laïcité, one that seems to guarantee a neat and orderly separation of religion and politics. Yet in France…