WILLIAM OF OCKHAM AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN SECULARISM

Abstract

William  of Ockham  was a Franciscan  friar, a theologian  and a very singular  philosopher. He lived at a time of crisis and during the transition  of philosophy  and theology. His secularism  is manifested  in the defense of a radical separation  between  the religious and secular powers. Assigned to the philosophical current of nominalism, he dealt a severe blow to the metaphysical  realism of Aristotle  and Thomas Aquinas  and he advocated  the separation  of reason and faith, between philosophy  and theology and thus he undermined the ideological  foundations  of the church of his time. He was accused  of heresy because of his nominalism,  although  he himself condemned  Pope John XXII  as heretical for his conception  of poverty, a concept  far removed  from evangelical principles  and especially from the notion of the Franciscan order. He defended the separation of church and state and he denied the Pope’s authority in secular matters. He flatly asserted freedom of conscience and Luther took him as a teacher.