Download or read book The Origins of Secular Institutions written by H. Zeynep Bulutgil and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An original theory and meticulous analysis of how advocates of political secularization emerged historically and why they succeeded in some contexts but not others. Why do some countries adopt secular institutions while others do not? In The Origins of Secular Institutions, Zeynep Bulutgil develops a theory that combines ideational and organizational mechanisms to explain how institutional secularization occurs. She first focuses on why political groups with a secularizing agenda emerge. Her argument is that the circulation of Enlightenment literature among the elite and associations through which the elite could exchange ideas were the main factors that influenced the early emergence of secularizing political movements. She then turns to the conditions under which these movements succeed. Secularizing political groups are at a comparative disadvantage when it comes to recruiting grassroots support because, unlike religious actors, they cannot rely on a pre-existing institutional structure. They become likely to overcome this obstacle if they have time to build a robust organization before religious political movements emerge. Bulutgil supports these arguments by combining statistical analysis of original historical data with comparative analysis of countries in Europe (France, Spain, The United Kingdom) and the Middle East/North Africa (Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia). An authoritative explanation of why political secularization occurred in some countries but not others, this book will reshape our understanding of an issue of unsurpassed importance for over two centuries: the effects of modernity on politics.
Download or read book The Origin and Nature of Secularism written by George Jacob Holyoake and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Secularism written by Andrew Copson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is secularism? -- Secularism in Western societies -- Secularism diversifies -- The case for Secularism -- The case against Secularism -- Conceptions of Secularism -- Hard questions and new conflicts -- Afterword: the future of Secularism
Download or read book Secularism A Very Short Introduction written by Andrew Copson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Until the modern period the integration of church (or other religion) and state (or political life) had been taken for granted. The political order was always tied to an official religion in Christian Europe, pre-Christian Europe, and in the Arabic world. But from the eighteenth century onwards, some European states began to set up their political order on a different basis. Not religion, but the rule of law through non-religious values embedded in constitutions became the foundation of some states - a movement we now call secularism. In others, a de facto secularism emerged as political values and civil and criminal law altered their professed foundation from a shared religion to a non-religious basis. Today secularism is an increasingly hot topic in public, political, and religious debate across the globe. It is embodied in the conflict between secular republics - from the US to India - and the challenges they face from resurgent religious identity politics; in the challenges faced by religious states like those of the Arab world from insurgent secularists; and in states like China where calls for freedom of belief are challenging a state imposed non-religious worldview. In this Very Short Introduction Andrew Copson tells the story of secularism, taking in momentous episodes in world history, such as the great transition of Europe from religious orthodoxy to pluralism, the global struggle for human rights and democracy, and the origins of modernity. He also considers the role of secularism when engaging with some of the most contentious political and legal issues of our time: 'blasphemy', 'apostasy', religious persecution, religious discrimination, religious schools, and freedom of belief and freedom of thought in a divided world. Previously published in hardback as Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Secular Institutions Islam and Education Policy written by P. Mattei and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amidst claims of threats to national identities in an era of increasing diversity, should we be worried about the upsurge in religious animosity in the United States, as well as Europe? This book explores how French society is divided along conflicts about religion, increasingly visible in public schools, and shows the effect that this has had.
Download or read book A SECULAR AGE written by Charles TAYLOR and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
Download or read book The Politics of Secularism in International Relations written by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conflicts involving religion have returned to the forefront of international relations. And yet political scientists and policymakers have continued to assume that religion has long been privatized in the West. This secularist assumption ignores the contestation surrounding the category of the "secular" in international politics. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations shows why this thinking is flawed, and provides a powerful alternative. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd argues that secularist divisions between religion and politics are not fixed, as commonly assumed, but socially and historically constructed. Examining the philosophical and historical legacy of the secularist traditions that shape European and American approaches to global politics, she shows why this matters for contemporary international relations, and in particular for two critical relationships: the United States and Iran, and the European Union and Turkey. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations develops a new approach to religion and international relations that challenges realist, liberal, and constructivist assumptions that religion has been excluded from politics in the West. The first book to consider secularism as a form of political authority in its own right, it describes two forms of secularism and their far-reaching global consequences.
Download or read book Secular institutions Islam and education policy written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origins of Secular Public Education written by Ian C. Bartrum and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the title suggests, this article explores the historical origins of secular public education, with a particular focus on the controversy surrounding the Catholic petitions for school funding in nineteenth-century New York City. The article first examines the development of Protestant nonsectarian common schools in the northeast, then turns to the New York controversy in detail, and finally explores that controversy's legacy in state constitutions and the Supreme Court. It is particularly concerned with two ideas generated in New York: (1) Bishop John Hughes' objection to nonsectarianism as the 'sectarianism of infidelity'; and (2) New York Secretary of State John Spencer's proposed policy of 'absolute non-intervention' in school religion. The article traces these ideas through the 1960s school prayer decisions, where they appear as Justice Stewart's objections to 'the religion of secularism,' and the general contention that disestablishment requires only that the government not favor one religion over another. In the process, it examines the conceptual problems that arise when we try to enforce religious neutrality by exclusion, rather than inclusion. Ultimately, the article concludes that the Court chose exclusive neutrality, not because it best served the constitutional mandate, but because it forwarded a social policy - begun with the common schools - that treats public schools as nationalizing institutions. Thus, I contend that the Court has chosen to promote cultural assimilation over authentic freedom of conscience.
Download or read book The Sacred and the Secular University written by Jon H. Roberts and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American higher education was transformed between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I. During this period, U.S. colleges underwent fundamental changes--changes that helped to create the modern university we know today. Most significantly, the study of the sciences and the humanities effectively dissolved the Protestant framework of learning by introducing a new secularized curriculum. This secularization has long been recognized as a decisive turning point in the history of American education. Until now, however, there has been remarkably little attention paid to the details of how this transformation came about. Here, at last, Jon Roberts and James Turner identify the forces and explain the events that reformed the college curriculum during this era. The first section of the book examines how the study of science became detached from theological considerations. Previously, one of the primary pursuits of "natural scientists" was to achieve an understanding of the workings of the divine in earthly events. During the late nineteenth century, however, scientists reduced the scope of their inquiries to subjects that could be isolated, measured, and studied objectively. In pursuit of "scientific truth," they were drawn away from the larger "truths" that they had once sought. On a related path, social scientists began to pursue the study of human society more scientifically, attempting to generalize principles of behavior from empirically observed events. The second section describes the revolution that occurred in the humanities, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, when the study of humanities was largely the study of Greek and Latin. By 1900, however, the humanities were much more broadly construed, including such previously unstudied subjects as literature, philosophy, history, and art history. The "triumph of the humanities" represented a significant change in attitudes about what constituted academic knowledge and, therefore, what should be a part of the college curriculum. The Sacred and the Secular University rewrites the history of higher education in the United States. It will interest all readers who are concerned about American universities and about how the content of a "college education" has changed over the course of the last century. "[Jon Roberts and James Turner's] thoroughly researched and carefully argued presentations invite readers to revisit stereotypical generalizations and to rethink the premises developed in the late nineteenth century that underlie the modern university. At the least, their arguments challenge crude versions of the secularization thesis as applied to higher education."--From the foreword by William G. Bowen and Harold T. Shapiro
Download or read book The Transnationality of the Secular written by Clemens Six and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-11-16 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To what extent was the evolution of secularism in twentieth-century South and Southeast Asia a result of transnational exchange? Six argues that networks of non-state actors played a bigger role than previously understood.
Download or read book Secularism and Cosmopolitanism written by Étienne Balibar and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and secularism—the worldwide and the worldly? While cosmopolitan politics may seem inherently secular, existing forms of secularism risk undermining the universality of cosmopolitanism because they privilege the European tradition over all others and transform particular historical norms into enunciations of truth, valid for all cultures and all epochs. In this book, the noted philosopher Étienne Balibar explores the tensions lurking at this troubled nexus in order to advance a truly democratic and emancipatory cosmopolitanism, which requires a secularization of secularism itself. Balibar argues for the idea of the universal against its particular dominant institutions. He questions the assumptions that underlie popular ideas of secularism and religion and outlines the importance of a new critique for the contemporary world. Balibar holds that conflicts between religious and secular discourses need to be reframed from a point of view that takes into account the cultural hybridization, migration and mobility, and transformation of borders that have reshaped the postcolonial age. Among the topics discussed are the uses and misuses of the category of religion and the religious, the paradoxical genealogy of monotheism, French laïcité’s identitarian turn, and the implications of the responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks for an extended definition of free speech. Going beyond circumscribed notions of religion and the public sphere, Secularism and Cosmopolitanism is a profound rethinking of identity and difference that seeks to make room for a renewed political imagination.
Download or read book Religion in Secular Society written by Bryan R. Wilson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-22 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fifty years after its publication, Bryan Wilson's Religion in Secular Society (1966) remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization refers to the fact that religion has lost influence at the societal, the institutional, and the individual level. Individual secularization is about the loss of authority of the Churches to define what people should believe, practise and accept as moral principles guiding their lives. In other words, individual piety may still persist, however, if it develops independently of religious authorities, then it is an indication of individual secularization. Wilson stresses that the consequences of the process of societalization in modern societies and on this basis he formulated his thesis that secularization is linked to the decline of community and is a concomitant of societalization. Revised and updated, Steve Bruce builds on Wilson's work by noting the changes in religious culture of the UK and US, in an appendix on major changes since the 1960s. Bruce also provides a critical response to the core ideas of Religion in Secular Society.
Download or read book Religion and Secularism Towards a Reconciliation written by Xavier Devon Scott and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines the evolving relationship between religion and the state in political philosophy. I begin with an examination of what religion is. I argue that religion is not primarily a belief system about metaphysics but rather a social system, which is better understood in terms of politics than science. In the second chapter, I look at the origins of secular political philosophy in early-modern Europe and contrast it with medieval political theory. I note that this transition does not mark a separation of church and state, but in fact accomplishes the expropriation of religious functions by the state. Therefore, I argue that the modern, secular state should not be mistaken for a neutral arbiter between competing religious perspectives. The modern state is itself a very interested party in how religion is expressed, understood, and in which religions are supported by the state. In my third chapter, I look at the rise of secular ideologies in the context of what Charles Taylor calls the modern moral order. I note that secular ideologies have attempted to reform society on the basis of ideals that avoid taking a stand on questions of religion. I question whether societies are capable of functioning on the basis of principle alone and note the tendency of liberal and communist states to adopt different forms of nationalism. I show that where universalist ideologies were once on the rise and spreading across the globe, they are increasingly met with the particularisms of culture and religion. Finally, I return to the topic of religion in contemporary political life. I examine four features of religion that have come under attack. Each of these problematic features of religion, I argue, also preform salutary functions in society. I show that this is particularly the case in societies where secular institutions are failing to provide institutional support or a sense of belonging to their members. By recognizing the complexity of religions interaction with the secular state, we can develop more nuanced approaches that are able to avoid the extremes of xenophobia and cultural relativism.
Download or read book Formations of the Secular written by Talal Asad and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003-02-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A dark but brilliantly original work . . . one of the most important books on religion and the modern in recent years.” —H-Net Reviews Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like?” this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non-European world” and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity. “A difficult if stunningly eloquent book, a response both elusive and forthright to the many shelves of ‘books on terrorism’ which this country’s trade publishers are rushing into print.” —Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature “This wonderfully illuminating book should be read alongside the author’s Genealogies of Religion.” —Religion “One of the most interesting scholars of religious writing today.” —Christian Scholar’s Review “Asad’s brilliant study remains a defining piece of intellectual and scholarly contribution for all of those interested in exploring the religious and the secular in the modern era.” —The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Download or read book Secularisation written by Christopher Hartney and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Secularisation: New Historical Perspectives unveils an exciting range of case studies exploring emerging research in secularisation with an international outlook. Inspired by scholarship conducted by the Religious History Association, this collected volume questions the paradigm of secularisation by exploring its historical manifestations and making projections as to the future divide between religious life and the secular world. A must-read for anyone interested in events and personalities that shaped the religious landscape of the present, this volume contains meticulous historical research. It also presents a strong focus on the Southern Hemisphere, which is often largely absent in discussions of secularity. Topics covered here include schisms between secularism and Christianity in Australia and on a global scale; Jesuit frontier missions in Ibero-America; the publically religious displays of the Salvation Army; competition between church life and emerging recreational pursuits at the turn of the century; Joseph Fletcher’s contributions ethical secularity; the privileged place of Christianity within the Queensland educational system; notions of religiously justified violence amongst the ANZAC forces; and the ongoing debate between constitutional secularity and Christian nationhood in the United States of America from its foundation up until the present day. The latter part of the volume explores the secularisation paradigm as a cultural creation in its own right – an important consideration for any scholar in this field. To this end, the authors explore the mythic status of secularisation as a social and historical concept; question the validity of historical approaches to this discourse; explore whether or not definitions of ‘religion’ are too conservative to be workable; and pose the question of whether or not secular institutions like state museums are really what they claim to be. The role of religion in public life is a fascinating question to explore, and one that must be tackled via a truly international exploration of secularisation. So too must the inquisitive scholar consider the very nature of the terms employed in research. Secularisation: New Historical Perspectives is the perfect toolkit for such investigations.
Download or read book Political Theologies written by Hent de Vries and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 810 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has happened to religion in its present manifestations? Containing contributions from distinguished scholars from disciplines, such as: philosophy, political theory, anthropology, classics, and religious studies, this book seeks to address this question.
