Description
Book SynopsisA collection that challenges the binary conception of conservative religion versus progressive secularism by highlighting the existence of multiple secularisms.
Trade Review“The greatest strengths of [
Secualarisms] are its thoughtful, incisive theoretical grounding and its inclusion of multiple minority reports which taken together challenge conventional secularism theorizing as it has developed.” -
Jonathan Seitz,
Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory“Do you think you already know what
secularism means? One virtue of this book is that the authors examine several modes and dimensions of secularism in different places, always closely attentive to the specific religious practices with which it is imbricated. Another is that the essays, taken together, loosen up the political imagination, allowing us to think outside the two-slot system—‘either secularism or theocracy’—which has such debilitating effects on political thought. An admirable collection of essays.”—
William E. Connolly, author of
Capitalism and Christianity, American Style“The greatest strengths of
Secualarisms are its thoughtful, incisive theoretical grounding and its inclusion of multiple minority reports which taken together challenge conventional secularism theorizing as it has developed.” -- Jonathan Seitz * Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: Times Like These / Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini 1
Part 1. Secular Interventions
1. (Un)Veiling Feminism / Afsaneh Najmabadi 39
2. Secularism and Laicism in Turkey / Taha Parla and Andrew Davison 58
3. Women Between Community and State: Some Implications of the Uniform Civil Code Debates / Rajeswari Sunder Rajan 76
4. Other Moderns, Other Jews: Revisiting Jewish Secularism in America / Laura Levitt 107
5. Disappearances: Race, Religion, and the Progress Narrative of U.S. Feminism / Tracy Fessenden 139
6. Late Secularism / Robert J. Baird 162
7. What Tangled Webs We Weave: Science, Secularism, and Religion in Contemporary India / Banu Subramaniam 178
Part 2. Secular Relations: Micronarratives
8. Secularizing the Pain of Footbinding in China: Missionary and Medical Stagings of the Universal Body / Angela Zito 205
9. Ghostly Appearances / Geeta Patel 226
10. "The Quick, the Dead, and the Yet Unborn": Untimely Sexualities and Secular Hauntings / Molly McGarry 247
Part 3. Public Alternatives
11. Toward Secular Diaspora: Relocating Religion and Politics / Tyler Roberts 283
12. Feminisms and Secularisms / Kathleen Sands 308
13. Continuity or Rupture? An Argument for Secular Britain / Ranu Samantrai 330
Bibliography 353
Contributors 387
Index 391
