Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age
Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age, 2015
Following the work of Bhargava, as well as Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini, in this volume, the editors take as a point of departure the fact that secularism is plural, that various secularisms have developed in various contexts and from various traditions around the world, and that secularism takes on different social and cultural meanings and political valences wherever it is expressed. At the same time, however, we acknowledge the hegemonic desiderata of secularism’s universalizing claims. That is, we see the importance of recognizing secularism as an Enlightenment legacy that exhibits universalizing ambitions. Thus, it is necessary to keep in mind both the doctrinal claims of secularism – its supposed difference from religion(s), its association with “progress” and modernity, its assertions of rationality and neutrality, its claims of exclusivity in connection with public life – as well as how this doctrinal logic unfolds in various contexts. Given this conception of secularism as both universalizing doctrine and particular instantiation, the essays in this volume provide numerous points of contact between theoretical/historical reflection and empirical case studies on secularisms in context. Recognizing that secular traditions have developed differently around the world and that this multiplicity must necessarily inform and complicate the conceptual theorization of secularism as a universal doctrine delivered wholesale from the Enlightenment, we have sought to gain clearer and more nuanced appreciations of the complexities of the concept of secularism from empirical case studies. Analyses of different regions, we believe, enrich our understanding of the meanings of secularism, providing comparative range to our notions of secularity, while adding dimension to our understanding of regional conditions and conflicts themselves. We maintain that theoretical and historical reflections over the meanings of secularism benefit from such empirical studies, serving to illustrate theories while also challenging traditional understandings that otherwise may remain unchallenged from within the more or less purely theoretical debates. At the same time, theoretical/historical treatments of secularism, we believe, help to inform our understanding of secularisms in context, enabling us to discern the principles at stake in the various regional expressions of secularity and/or religiosity globally. Theoretical and historical accounts help us to refine, contextualize, and revise our understandings of contemporary empirical findings.
Rethinking secularization: A global comparative perspective
Religion, Globalization, and Culture
New york City, where he has taught since 1987. He has published widely in the areas of sociological theory, religion and politics, transnational migration, and globalization. His most important work, Public Religions in the Modern World (1994), has appeared in multiple languages. He is presently a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Secular Studies
In line with Jacques Berlinerblau’s Secularism: The Basics, this commentary highlights manifestations of secularism beyond the west. It argues that state regulation of religion and religious citizens is not one dimensional. Secularism takes different forms and contends with differing sociopolitical realities.
Revisiting Secularism: Secularism and Secularisation-A Bibliographical Essay
Economic and Political Weekly
Tracing the trajectory of "secularism" studies, this essay brings out a critique of the evolutionary perspective that pronounced a waning of the "religious" in a predominantly "secular" "modern" world. In the face of global and local realities that negate any strict boundaries between the "secular", "religious" and "political", many western and non-western debates on secularism have creatively re-envisaged the concept and highlighted its variegated meanings. Yet, these have been unable to locate secularism in lived phenomenological realities. This bibliographical essay discusses works that may not be categorised as "secularism" studies and yet offer insights into the interaction between religious, cultural, political and secular aspects of society, while attempting to unentangle the different, but related, processes of "secularism" and "secularisation". It is the secularisation process that needs academic attention to understand the complex interaction between the "secular" and the "religious".
UNDERSTANDING SECULARISM IN GLOBAL POLITICS
Secularism is a form of both constitutional arrangement and political philosophy that governs approaches to religious plurality. As a principle within international relations, it can be traced back to the Peace of Westphalia secured in the 17th century through a series of treaties which established the principles of sovereign states. Contemporarily, it is understood as a strategy to establish principles and a shared language through which diverse groups of varying religious traditions and none can work to achieve common goals. In these terms it is not surprising, given the complexity of actors engaged in humanitarian response noted above, that it is a secular framework which has come to characterize the goals, standards and processes of the contemporary humanitarian regime. A secular frame has widely been seen as the key foundation to position the language, goals and processes of humanitarianism outside and above the fray of conflicting beliefs and ideologies. Religion, given its potential divisiveness, alignment to violence and intolerance, and its belonging to the realm of 'ultimate ideals', is not an appropriate domain for humanitarian engagement. In order to 'enjoy the confidence of all',agencies need to operate above the fray of religious ideology and practice, consigning religion's protected free exercise to the private sphere. Secularism is no longer a simple description of the consequence of loss of belief; to many, it represents an alternative way of life that should be satisfying in its own right. The crisis in secularism is in its relationship to religion. Secularism is nowpopular enough that one may consider it a social phenomenon in its ownright. The paper is aimed at inquiring the questions for the future of secularism that, does this strong separation between religion and secularism have the effect of giving religion a monopoly on imbuing human life with depth of meaning? And does it then restrict secularism to mere materialism and relativism? We also come across with another variety of this second form of secularism as " Hallowed Secularism. " Although the constitutional theory of this second form of secularism is by no means yet worked out, there is at least the potential here for acceptance of religious imagery in the public square.
SECULARISM: ITS CONTENT AND CONTEXT
This paper addresses two sets of questions. First, questions about the meaning of secularism and second questions about its justification and implementation. It is argued that Charles Taylor's recent efforts to redefine secularism for a time when we have gone ‗beyond toleration' to multiculturalism in liberal politics, are based on plausible (and laudable) political considerations that affect the question of justification and implementation, but leave unaffected the question of the meaning and content of secularism. An alternative conceptualization of secularism is offered, from the one he proposes, while also addressing his deep and understandable concerns about the politics of secularism for our time. In the characterization of secularism offered, it turns out that secularism has its point and meaning, not in some decontextualized philosophical argument, but only in contexts that owe to specific historical trajectories, with specific political goals to be met.
Beyond Comparing Secularisms; A Critique of Religio-Secularism
The Oxford Handbook of Secularism, 2017
“Religio-secularism” denotes the tendency to understand specific cultural and political conflicts in terms an opposition between religion on the one hand and secularism on the other. Religio-secularism as a cultural-political paradigm tends to obscure the intricacies of political, socioeconomic, cultural-historical, religious, and ideological dimensions of specific situations (and often conflicts) that require complex analysis and evaluation. Religio-secularism, especially when it becomes the primary or exclusive framework for understanding cultural and political conflict, serves as an ideological barrier rather than an illuminating paradigm. Critique of the increasing grip of religio-secularism on political thinking, in contrast to the captivation with “postsecularism,” takes a reflexive attitude toward religio-secularism and its distorted lens through which to view the historical world. Other lenses should be used to survey contemporary events and situations related to religion, and this is particularly so with regard to conflicts over religion, religion in the public sphere, and secularism.
Post-Secularism in Multiple Modernities
Journal of Sociology 53 (4), 2017
Post-secularism is a term that has emerged in various disciplines including sociology to reflect the move back of religion in the public sphere and the need to take into account the voice of religious actors in any contemporary analysis of a society. This articles argues that post-secularism is in fact a specific type of secularism that deals with the neo-liberal management of religion in the public sphere. To unpack this, this article will first explore what is meant by post-secularism, and then via a case study on Shari’a in Australian, it will then move to the theory of multiple modernities to underline the relativity of such a term. It will then be proposed that what is meant by post-secularism is a type of secularism (perhaps a ‘late’ rather than a ‘post’) in neo-liberal societies.
Religious Pluralism and the Challenge for Secularism
Journal of Law, Religion, and State , 2019
This essay introduces the Special Issue of the Journal. It discusses how changing religious demographics and heightened religious plurality are challenging existing thinking about, and patterns of, state-religion relations and the nature of the 'secular state'. The essay briefly surveys each of the papers in the Special Issue and highlights that one of the key lessons that emerges from the papers is the importance of context. As the contexts evolve, fresh thinking and new arrangements would be needed.