from the enlightenment to the state of israel 439
Responses by Jews to these cultural and social changes within the
wider society in which they have found themselves in modern times
have also been affected by Christian responses, and by changes within
Christianity. In many Christian societies since the Enlightenment reli-
gious affiliation has been treated by the state as a matter for private
choice, and the role of the Church in moulding the policies of the state
has been strictly limited either de jure (as in France and the United
States since the late eighteenth century) or de facto (as in the many con-
temporary European countries in which secular voices predominate in
the public sphere even where, as in Italy or Ireland, Catholic influence
has traditionally been strong). The privatization of religion has left
space for a multiplicity of competing Christian denominations and
sects, with claims to represent the true form of the faith (sometimes
expressed as a fundamental return to origins) balanced by occasional
recognition, particularly in recent decades, of the desirability of ecu-
menism. Wide public debate about the implications of scientific advances
for religious faith have covered and recovered essentially the same
ground since the mid- nineteenth century, when the evolutionary
theories of Darwin were understood by some to contradict the veracity
of the Bible. The insights of biblical critics, since the pioneering efforts
of Julius Wellhausen in the same era as Darwin, have been taken as
evidence for similar doubts on literary and historical grounds. To all
these issues have been added in recent years new contentions arising
from wider societal change, such as the treatment of women and homo-
sexuals in leadership roles within Christian communities. In many
European societies an increase in Muslim populations has prompted
reconsideration of questions of faith and toleration, with inevitable
impact on Jews as well as Christians: the total number of Muslims in
Europe (excluding Turkey) in 2010 was estimated at around forty- four
million, constituting 6 per cent of the total population.
In some respects many diaspora Jews now practise their religion in
multicultural western societies on much the same terms as Christians
do, opting into (or out of) a specific synagogue community in the same
way as Christians may opt into a church group – and for similar mixed
reasons, from family tradition to social solidarity, convenience of loc-
ation, the personality of the religious leadership and occasionally (of
course) religious conviction. Such freedom of religious association and
disassociation may be seen as one of the greatest changes in Jewish reli-
gious life over the past two centuries, since, until quite recently, Jews