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The article seeks to answer the question whether there is an alternative to theocracy—understood in a broad sense as a political order subject to religious authority—that falls short of a form of secularism which would outlaw basic principles, values and visions of human purpose from the realm of public discourse. It suggests that O’Donovan’s conception of the political order as a response to the Church’s mission provides such an alternative, and that it is line with a central Christian tradition—especially stressed by St Augustine—which gives positive value and autonomy to the secular realm.