MACHIAVELLI`S SECULARISM

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Asistant Professor; Political Science Department, University of Tehran

2 PHD student of political thought in Institute for social and cultural studies

Abstract

The discussion over a prominent thinker like Niccolo Machiavelli is like a neverending
stream. The proportion of modern thought to Christianity and the intellectual
evolution of Secularism have their origins in Machiavelli`s thought. The explanation
of this proportion has been accompanied by kinds of incoherences to the extent that
have put Machiavelli as the enemy of the religion or against that. Also Machiavelli`s
use of religion as instrument is another reliable interpretation. That makes it ever
harder to comprehend Machiavelli`s ideas. This article tries to indicate some kinds
of identity between Machiavelli`s thought and Christianity which can result in the
recognition of the meaning of Secularism and such intellectual evolution through the
republican exegesis.

Keywords