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Friedrich von Schelling, A Union Needs Religion

Private Lectures in Stuttgart, 1810

A study of modern history, beginning essentially with the emergence of Christianity in Europe, reveals two attempts by mankind in its quest for unity.The first, which sought to create spiritual unity within the Church, was doomed to failure because it also strove to ensure unity outside the Church. The second sought to bring about that external unity through the intermediary of the State.

The mistake the Church made in the age of ecclesiastical hierarchy was not that it interfered in the affairs of the State, but that on the contrary it allowed the State to interfere in its own affairs. Instead of keeping itself pure from any outside elements, the Church abandoned itself to the State by espousing some of its forms. External violence could never serve the cause of things true and divine, and the Church lost its true vocation when it started to persecute heretics.

The State grew in importance as the ecclesiastical hierarchy was overthrown, and it is obvious that the yoke of tyrants became all the heavier the more they believed they could forgo spiritual unity. In any event it is certain that, whatever the ultimate goal may be, true unity can only be achieved through the path of religion. This has nothing to do with the State dominating the Church, or vice versa, but with the necessity of the State to develop religious principles so that the union of all peoples can be based on the community of religious convictions. 

Cf.  Pope Benedict XVI, The Papal Science