struggling with the world 123Christianity is in no sense a religion of the law. Moreover, its infl uence
on the secular projects of po liti cal and personal liberation and its affi n-
ity with them have been far greater than those enjoyed by Judaism and
Islam. Nevertheless, the commonalities among the three religions with
respect to the core tenets of this approach to the world are broad and
far reaching. Th ese shared elements become unmistakable by contrast
to the humanization of the world and to the overcoming of the world.
For the profane form of the struggle with the world, there is no one
here but us. Th e sacred and the profane forms of the struggle with the
world convey distinct but analogous messages. It forms no part of my
account of the struggle with the world to present its profane version of
this approach as a simple translation of the message of these religions
into a secular discourse.
Christianity has helped shape the secular endeavors of emancipa-
tion, both po liti cal and personal. Th ese eff orts at liberation have also,
however, suff ered many other infl uences. Th ey bear the imprint of ideas
alien to Christianity and exhibit the eff ects of social and economic
changes that cannot be reduced to ideas. None of the most characteris-
tic achievements of Western civilization can be understood without
taking into account their oft en ambivalent relation to Christianity. Th e
programs of personal and social liberation that have occupied so im-
portant a place in the history of the last few centuries form no excep-
tion to this rule.
Th e sacred and the profane versions of the struggle with the world
stand on their own feet. Th e diff erences between them matter. Th ey
matter fi rst to the content of the message. It matters whether we should
or should not see our eff orts at social and self- transformation as inci-
dents in a history of dealings between God and humanity. In the eyes of
the believer, the unbeliever may stand under suspicion of Pelagianism,
the heresy according to which we may hope to achieve salvation by our
own eff orts, in historical time. For the unbeliever, the believer places the
source of salvation beyond history, the better to surrender to established
powers. Th e messages of the sacred and profane versions of the struggle
with the world diff er, and have diff erent implications for the conduct of
life as well as for the or ga ni za tion of society.
We should resist the attempt— characteristic of contemporary
culture— to split the diff erence between believing and not believing in