Faithful to Secularism: The Religious Politics of Democracy in Ireland, Senegal, and the Philippines, by DAVID T. BUCKLEY

Abstract

Secularism has emerged in the past decade as a popular analytic for scholars interested in the social aspects of religion and politics. David T. Buckley’s Faithful to Secularism serves as a useful contribution to secularism studies, pushing for a more nuanced and careful examination of the possible relationships between religion and democracy globally. The book provides a comparative analysis of secularism as it emerged and evolved over the twentieth century in three contexts: Ireland, Senegal, and the Philippines. Utilizing archival, ethnographic, and social scientific methods, Buckley investigates the institutional mechanisms that he argues allow for what Alfred Stepan has conceptualized as “twin tolerations”: a state that respects private and public roles for religion and religious groups that respect the autonomy of the state apart from religious authority. The mechanism that allows this is what Buckley calls “benevolent secularism,” a form of coalition-making with three features that define the relationship between secular and religious agents: differentiation, cooperation, and, borrowing from Rajeev Bhargava, “principled distance.” Buckley is interested in how this form of secularism emerged in historical contexts where its emergence seemed unlikely due to the threats of anti-religious elite secular rule or religious-based majoritarian rule.