books about: secularism

books about: secularism

books:

Secularism

Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Talal Asad

Stanford University Press, 2003

An erudite and praiseworthy albeit easily misunderstood attempt at uncloaking the Secular disguise.
There is more here than an Anthropology of the Secular and mostly because a full appreciation of the concept can never arise from a direct response to the question "what is the secular?". And so Asad continues throughout to offer examples and elements of alterations in ...

The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life

Austin Dacey

Prometheus Books, 2008

Excellent study of the secular basis of ethics
Austin Dacey is an American philosopher and a representative at the United Nations of the Center for Inquiry, which promotes the secular, scientific outlook. He is also on the editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer and Free Inquiry. In this brilliant and original ...

Is Goodness without God Good Enough?: A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and Ethics
Nathan L. King, Robert K. Garcia

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008

Is Goodness Without God Good Enough contains a lively debate between William Lane Craig and Paul Kurtz on the relationship between God and ethics, followed by seven new essays that both comment on the debate and advance the broader discussion of this important issue. Written in an accessible style by eminent scholars, this book will appeal to ...

The Modern Middle East: A History

James L. Gelvin

Oxford University Press, USA, 2007

One of the best introductions out there...
It is hard to overstate the value of this relatively short introduction to Middle Eastern history. Rather than attempting a traditional narrative, Gelvin's history emphasizes ways of conceptualizing Middle Eastern history, allowing readers to see, for example, the ...

Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari`a

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na`im

Harvard University Press, 2008

The Liberal Age is not entirely over . . .
It may seem at times as if Islamic political thought has been captured by Qutb, Maududi, and their intellectual descendents. It is hard to remember that from about 1840 to 1940 (the period that Hourani terms the "Liberal Age"), the dominant strain in Muslim political ...

A Secular Age

Charles Taylor

Belknap Press, 2007

Landmark portrait of modernity
An exhaustive, very learned string of reviews on Taylor's study can be found at "The Immanent Frame" ([...]), a blog maintained by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). After all that has been said, I will only add that Taylor's book is work of synthetic and ...

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

Susan Jacoby

Holt Paperbacks, 2005

America's Greatest Gift to the World...
....is secular government, the separation of church and state. Jefferson said it most eloquently when he spoke of a "wall of separation," and for once his actions fully complemented his words. Author Susan Jacoby recounts: "In 1799, Jefferson proposed a bill that ...

Religious America, Secular Europe?: A Theme and Variations
Peter Berger, Grace Davie, ...

Ashgate Publishing, 2008

The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion

Joseph Ratzinger, Jurgen Habermas

Ignatius Press, 2007

Debating the place of Religion in Society
Habermas and Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) are two of the greatest minds of their times. This short work is their take on the interctions of democratic culture, political liberalism, religion and God. These two separate essays are the summation of a discussion between ...

How to Reach Secular People

George G. Hunter

Abingdon Press, 1992

Profiles secular people very well
Hunter effectively pinpoints and labels the different personality catorgories that "secular people" typically fall into. He then explains where their concerns with the Christian church originated. I was ultimately unsatisfied with his sections that profiled successful ...

Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture
Aamir R. Mufti

Princeton University Press, 2007

Enlightenment in the Colony opens up the history of the "Jewish question" for the first time to a broader discussion--one of the social exclusion of religious and cultural minorities in modern times, and in particular the crisis of Muslim identity in modern India. Aamir Mufti identifies the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India as a colonial variation ...

The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999

Pseudo or Real Desecularization?
Second submittal (revised) Sociologist Peter L. Berger's 1974 book Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change foresaw what we now call "globalization." His 1983 book with sociologist Brigitte Berger The War Over The Family anticipated what has been ...

After Christendom

Stanley Hauerwas

Abingdon Press, 1991

A Critique of Liberal Democracy
Although this is not Hauerwas' best book, it is still an excellent read. Hauerwas challenges commonly held conceptions about how the church should interact with a democratic society. He then offers an alternative paradigm for the church, one that involves the ...

Faces of the State: Secularism and Public Life in Turkey

Yael Navaro-Yashin

Princeton University Press, 2002

An important and interesting book
The previous review was quite unfair to this book. First of all, the reviewer casts Navaro-Yashin as somehow removed from the important issues in contemporary Turkey, as some kind of foreigner. This is unfair. Navaro-Yashin does state that she an 'outsider' in ...

God-Optional Judaism: Alternatives for Cultural Jews Who Love Their History, Heritage, and Community

Judith Seid

Citadel, 2001

Like I said before -- Jewshness is BOTH culture and religion
I'm giving this book five stars, NOT because I agree with its theology (I most certainly do NOT - I myself am a religious Jew) but because it is well-written and thought provoking in its own genre. Judith Seid is a "cultural Jew," that is, a Jew who relates to the ...