Liberal Secularism Research Articles

The Trouble with Transcendence: Carl Schmitt’s “Exception” as a Challenge for Religious Studies

AbstractThe Weimar- and Nazi-era legal theorist Carl Schmitt was one of the first to recognize that Max Weber’s theory of “disenchantment” encoded Protestant presuppositions. Despite his unsavory politics, I argue that Schmitt’s thesis—namely, that secular liberalism is a disguised and disenchanted “political theology” which depends on an exclusion of charismatic ruptures in the natural and moral orders—must be taken seriously. A genealogy of the prohibition of the miracle by the radical Reformation provides evidence for Schmitt’s contention that an ostensibly secular modernity, no less than its theological opponents, has had its own trouble with transcendence or the “exception.”

Symposium: Carson Holloway, The Way of Life: John Paul II and the Challenge of Liberal Modernity

In the twentieth century, liberal modernity survived attacks from two forms of illiberal modernity, Stalinism and Nazism. In 1940, at the beginning of the war to the death with Nazism, the statesman most responsible for its survival in that war, described thusly what was at stake: “Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. . . . Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’.”1 Substantially through his efforts, “liberal modernity,” “the West,” and “Christian civilization” survived that threat. But its survival was almost immediately again threatened by the rise in the East of a danger at least as great. The last half of the twentieth century was a protracted conflict between “the free world” and Soviet communism, although the growing influence of relativism in “the West” as the century wore on eventually made it controversial to speak there of “the free world.” The conflict ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the subsequent liberation of the countries of Eastern Europe, and the relaxing of communist rule in what became once again Russia rather than the Soviet Union. However, by that time, no European statesman would speak publicly of “Christian civilization,” let alone summon it to defend itself. The Cold War coincided with a secularization of the West that rendered such a description and summons anachronistic. By 2004, European political elites would publicly refuse, and make a virtue of refusing, to acknowledge Europe’s Christian heritage in the proposed EU Constitution;2 they would also refuse to accept Italy’s representative to the EU as its commissioner for justice, apparently because he was a Catholic who agreed with the Church on certain moral questions concerning which the Church is in conflict with the liberal secularism

Attitudes about gender integration among Bahraini policewomen

This research explored Bahraini policewomen's attitudes towards gender integration of their police force. It tests two duelling hypotheses. The first hypothesis, embracing the modernisation model of the development of women in policing, predicts that younger generations of policewomen will be more likely to show support for gender integration. The second hypothesis is that the shift in the Bahraini culture from a nationalist secular feminism in the 1970s to the present neo-conservative Islamism predicts that younger generations of policewomen are less likely to support gender integration. In 2005, a survey was distributed to all Bahraini policewomen (N=241) with 46% (N=112) returning the completed questionnaire. Results from multiple regression analysis show that neither hypotheses satisfactorily predicted variations in Bahraini policewomen's attitudes towards gender integration. Suggestions for more nuanced theories were offered to frame analyses of gender and policing in cultural contexts like Bahrain.

Complex Space or Broken Middle? Milbank, Rose, and the Sharia Controversy

Remarks by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggesting that British law recognize Islamic law in some cases provoked a public outcry. I reflect on what may have caused the strong reaction to Williams's remarks by situating them between the work of John Milbank and the work of Gillian Rose. What Williams, Milbank, and Rose are struggling to articulate is a "politics of the middle," a political theory that does not privilege the sovereignty of individual or state, and which puts intermediary associations at center stage. A politics of the middle offers the only alternative to political theology, I argue. However, attempts to articulate a politics of the middle have remained cloaked in residual political theology. Critics of secular liberalism, who often content themselves with offering genealogies instead of presenting a constructive alternative, should explore the possibilities held by a politics of the middle, possibilities (and challenges) exposed by the sharia controversy.

Latin American Seminary Reform: Modernization and the Preservation of the Catholic Church

As secular modernization increasingly affected the Catholic Church’s moral and legal influence in Latin America in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, ecclesiastical leaders moved to strengthen the institutional Church. To do so, they found a strategy in the concept of modernization itself, and their efforts focused on the professionalization of the clergy, particularly through seminary reform. The papacy, Latin American bishops, and seminary administrators implemented curricular and disciplinary reforms, particularly from European models, to improve the number and quality of the clergy and thus defend the Church against the rise of liberal secularism, albeit with mixed results.

Towards a Transformed Communal Spirituality in the West

In the Laws Plato rejects the idea that reason alone is capable of providing an adequate foundation for a just social order by motivating ordinary citizens to act rightly. He therefore sees religion (of the right kind) as playing an important complementary role to reason in encouraging and reinforcing virtuous behaviour in the community. This provides a significant implicit critique of modern liberal secularism. However, Plato never adequately comprehends the way in which religions derive their popular persuasive power. Faith and reason need to act together in an integrated manner as the foundation for social order.

THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY: ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

AbstractStanley Hauerwas and Gavin D'Costa develop theological arguments for inclusion of constructive theology in Universities' curricula; Andrew Shanks offers an equivalent. They share the conviction that the practice of theology cannot be separated from religious practices. Beyond that, however, their arguments scarcely intersect, in part because of differing analyses of the “secularity” that underwrites the academy's skepticism of theology as a “discipline.” Hauerwas analyses secularity theologically; Shanks urges that even secular societies exhibit “will to Honesty” (think, perhaps, “ultimate concern”) that is inherently religious and theological; D'Costa argues that central to secular liberalism is a commitment to genuine pluralism that ought to foster theologies in their particularities.

The Reinvention of Feminism in Pakistan

This article argues that there has been a significant turn in the discourse of feminist politics in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The author suggests that the rise of a new feminism – rooted in Islamic discourse, non-confrontational, privatized and personalized, whose objective is to ‘empower’ women within Islam – is not a post-9/11 development but rather a result of unresolved debates on the issue of religion within the progressive women's movement. It has been due to the accommodation of religion-based feminist arguments by the stronger secular feminist movement of the 1980s that paved the way for its own marginalization by giving feminist legitimacy to such voices. The author argues that the second wave of feminism may have become diluted in its effectiveness and support due to discriminatory religious laws, dictatorship, NGO-ization, fragmentation, co-option by the state and political parties in the same way as the global women's movement has. Yet it has been the internal inconsistency of the political strategies as well as the personal, Muslim identities of secular feminists that have allowed Islamic feminists to redefine the feminist agenda in Pakistan. This article voices the larger concern over the rise of a new generation of Islamic revivalist feminists who seek to rationalize all women's rights within the religious framework and render secular feminism irrelevant while framing the debate on women's rights exclusively around Islamic history, culture and tradition. The danger is that a debate such as this will be premised on a polarized ‘good’ vs ‘bad’ Muslim woman, such that women who abide by the liberal interpretation of theology will be pitted against those who follow a strict and literal interpretist mode and associate themselves with male religio-political discourse. This is only likely to produce a new, radicalized, religio-political feminism dominating Pakistan's political future.

The Vulnerability of Religious Liberty in Liberal States

AbstractReligious liberty enjoys a large measure of protection in liberal democratic states. This historically hard-won right will nevertheless always remain somewhat vulnerable. This article examines the relationship between liberalism and religionists who challenge key liberal tenets. The limits of liberal tolerance are seen when the state confronts those devout believers who behave or speak in the public domain in a manner that secular liberals perceive to be intolerant or bigoted. The courts and legislatures cannot be relied upon to protect the exercise of religion in situations where fundamental liberal premises are at stake.

The Challenges of Opening a Dialogue between Catholic and Secular Feminist Legal Theorists

Catholic Feminist Legal Theory has much to contribute to our analysis of various social, political and legal issues. However, in order for a Catholic Feminist Legal Theory to make a contribution to the dialogue about issues of law and public policy, it has to be able to speak effectively to those outside of the faith tradition. In particular, it has to get past the instinctive reaction of many people that a Catholic feminist theory cannot be reconciled with secular feminist theory. The question addressed in this Article is whether it is possible for a Catholic Feminist Legal Theory to be taken seriously by secular feminists and other legal scholars. The Article identifies and discusses some of the major challenges to the articulation of a persuasive Catholic Feminist Legal Theory to a non-Catholic feminist audience. With respect to each of the issues identified as a challenge to secular feminists, my focus in this Article is not whether the Church's position on the issue in question is correct. Rather, the focus is whether the position of the Church on the issue can be shown to be grounded in truth claims that do not sound in subordination of women or otherwise do violence to the aims of secular feminists. The Article addresses five issues: (1) the place and role of Mary within Catholicism; (2) a historical narrative of subordination in the Church; and the Church's position on (3) contraception, (4) marriage and family and (5) the ordination of women. It concludes that the first two of those issues, properly understood, do not present any problem from a secular feminist perspective. With respect to the third and fourth issues, it concludes that although the Church's positions on contraception and marriage/family are grounded in claims that do not on the surface seem inherently oppressive to women, the positions do imply a view of homosexuality that will be difficult for secular feminists to accept. Compounding the difficulty, the fifth issue, ordination presents a more directly challenging problem from a secular perspective. Thus, ultimately I am pessimistic about the ability of a Catholic Feminist Legal Theory to be able to engage in meaningful dialogue with secular feminists.

Should the Language and Legislation of Women's Rights be Implemented in the Arguments for Consecrating Women as Bishops in the Church of England?

This article explores some of the benefits and pitfalls of applying rights language and legislation to the debate over whether to consecrate women as bishops in the Church of England. Secular feminists have pointed out tensions between the concept of women's rights and religious freedom which highlight conflicts in law between religious and gender identities. Women priests have not, as yet, used equal opportunities legislation as a tool to allow women to be consecrated as bishops and faith communities are exempt (by choice) from this legislation. Wood argues that this exemption is not entirely `safe' due to the established status of the Church of England but the question remains as to whether equal opportunities legislation is the best basis for consecrating women as bishops.

Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics after the Religious Right (review)

David J. O’Brien E . J. Dionne, Jr., is among our most thoughtful commentators on American politics and Souled Out is his unusually sophisticated examination of the role of religion in American public life. Historians should love Dionne. His earlier books located American political controversies in an historical context extending from the Progressive Movement through the New Deal and the watershed of the sixties to the rise of conservatism across all sectors. He helped us understand “Why Americans Hate Politics” and, at a low point for progressives, he explained “Why They (We) Only Look Dead.” In books, columns, magazine articles and frequent TV and radio appearances, Dionne offers news and commentary that actually is “fair and balanced.” Yet he makes no secret of his views, stating early in this book that Americans have “had enough” of political religion that is “excessively dogmatic, partisan and ideological.” More than most media pundits, Dionne is a genuine political intellectual. A Rhodes Scholar, Georgetown professor and Brookings Fellow, Dionne is one of the few contemporaries who deserve a place with such classic newspaper columnists as Walter Lippman, Max Lerner, and James Reston. Dionne is also a wellinformed and well-connected Catholic, open about his faith, respectful of church authority, engaged with Catholic ideas and interested in his fellow Catholics. Perhaps as a result, Souled Out, almost alone in the growing library of books about religion and American politics, provides accurate information about the political ideas and activities of American Catholics and draws on Catholic sources to support a more comprehensive and constructive understanding of faith and politics. The first reason to read this fine book is to get a summary of the surveys, monographs and memoirs exploding under the heading of religion and American politics. Dionne has read it all. He summarizes religious surveys and voting data, he draws on scholarship and journalism, and he talks to a great many people. His sources include liberals, conservatives, and moderates, and his treatment of people and ideas is a model of civility. Readers of U.S. Catholic Historian will be particularly interested in Souled Out because Dionne shares our interests. He references Michael Kazin on William Jennings Bryan and John McGreevy on Catholics and liberals, and Michael Novak and John Paul II on markets and their limits. He cites John A. Ryan and John Courtney Murray, S.J., and he knows his Reinhold Neibuhr, whose commitment to justice and realism about power he finds helpful “after the Religious Right.” So Catholic historians will be pleased, but they might find his Catholic history a little 115 stale and ask him to drop by Catholic University for an update on recent historical scholarship that might expand even further his imagination about religion and American politics. There are many important points made in this book. Dionne thinks “the era of the religious Right is over,” a wider range of social gospel concerns are awakening among evangelicals, constructive proposals are replacing polarized debates about abortion, and leaders are paying attention to the religious and political center, where the vast majority of Americans reside. The future will not belong to the left but to new configurations where secular liberals are more respectful of religion, committed religious people are more aware of the disciplines of pluralism, and concern for the common good replaces the self-righteousness of recent culture wars. Dionne is a hopeful but not a perfect guide: he has always been stronger on domestic affairs than foreign policy, he is a bit passive about political history, as if violence and corruption had little to do with winners and losers, and at times he seems almost too calm, wondering why people are so upset. But Souled Out is the best book to date (and there are a lot of them) on this important subject of religion and recent American politics. Still, hoping to spark further conversation, I would like to offer three comments: one about American politics, another about American Catholics, and a third about America itself. On American politics: Dionne needs to think a bit harder about power. This may seem odd when his central theological reference is Neibuhr, famous for his insertion of power into the moral reflections of...

Twice removed: Mizrahi settlers in Gush Katif

What does ethnicity (or race) have to do with the struggle over land in post-1967 Israeli occupied territories? On the Israeli scene, post-1967 settlers tend to be depicted as religiously motivated Jews of Ashkenazi descent and often Anglophone origin, while Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (Mizrahim) tend to be associated with development towns and other locations known for high unemployment and generally depressed socio-economic situations. Prior to the Israeli disengagement of 2005 there was a great deal of public attention focused on the controversy surrounding settlement in the occupied territories. The conflict often appeared in stark oppositions of ‘left-wing secular liberals’ against ‘right-wing religious radicals.’ The most outspoken messianic settlers and those often depicted in mainstream media tended to be of Ashkenazi origin, a representation that denies the presence of Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent (Mizrahim) in the settlements then slated for evacuation. This article raises a set of questions about the hegemonic representation of the Israeli socio-political-religious scene regarding the relative absence of representations of Mizrahi Jews who lived in the settlements of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. It asks both what this representation accomplishes and what is at stake in recognizing the Mizrahi presence as settlers in post-1967 occupied territories.

Who Will Speak for Islam?

At the heart of the moving puzzle the world faces over the next quarter century are the diverse Muslim populations, collectively known as the Global Muslim Community. Spanning the globe and speaking nearly every language, they are united by one faith Islam. Collectively, they make up one-fifth of the world's population and sit on 75 percent of its oil wealth. Understanding the emerging trends of these societies is perhaps the world's leading strategic imperative. But who will speak for Islam in the future on democracy, the role of or violence? Over six years ending in 2007, the Gallup organization undertook more than 50,000 interviews (representative of the 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations with majority or significant Muslim populations) in an effort to explore current trends and examine the future. The results, reflective of more than 90 percent of the world's Muslim community, are the end product of the most comprehensive survey of its kind ever conducted; they defy conventional wisdom and the inevitability of a global conflict even as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. Dealing a blow to the foundations of the clash of civilizations theory, our data shows a strong Muslim affinity for democratic values. Far from hating Americans for their freedom, Muslims around the world describe and admire the Western tradition of democratic governance, while seeing their faith as a source of progress and balance. Allowed the political space, leaders drawing both on democracy and Islam's rich tradition will overshadow secular liberals and conservative theocrats as the leaders of tomorrow. These Muslim democrats will appeal to Islam's self-image of to argue for minority rights, gender justice, and the rule of law. The focus will be heavily on economic development and job creation through free trade and entrepreneurship. This evolving future will find women at the forefront. Women comprise the majority of university students in several countries, and the percentage of women in Iran, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (uae), and Egypt that attends university is on a par with that of Western Europe and South Korea. These women tell us that they expect their full rights and see their religion as essential to progress. Instead of a misogynistic corpus of ossified medieval edicts, Muslim women see their sacred law as a vibrant work in progress. They associate shariah compliance with justice for women,

Persons in Community in the Theology of Rowan Williams: Issues Arising With the Use of Sociology in Christian Moral Reasoning

Rowan Williams's theological-moral reasoning regarding the formation of personal identities in relation to gender, familial and communal ties is analysed in an article review of his book Lost Icons. This is his most sustained essay in theological social criticism, and was intended for the general public beyond academic theology. Williams exposes Christian moral reasoning on these issues to forms of secular critique whilst simultaneously using theological and historical strategies from liberal Anglo-Catholicism. His argumentation is subjected to theological and social-scientific scrutiny. The article calls for closer attention to debates within secular feminism and social research concerning the formation of adult men and women in relation to the wider post-Christian society. Links are made from Williams's thought in Lost Icons to underlying patterns in his academic theological output.

Controversy

This article focuses on the multilayered changes in the lives of Palestinian women over the years of the first and second Intifadas. On the one hand, women have become far more actively involved in politics, with a Women's Charter being drafted and legislation concerning women's rights being put on the political agenda. At the same time, the political shift from a Fatah- to a Hamas-dominated government has shifted understandings of whether the state should be secular or Islamist. Paradoxical developments by which Hamas has, on the one hand, fostered women's education and job training opportunities, but, on the other, insisted on women's subordinate legal status, are reflected within the Islamist women's movement. The article discusses the decline in power of the leftist and secular political forces, and the resulting political conflicts between the earlier secular feminist movement and the more recent `Islamist feminism'.

Religious education for political thinking and citizenship

The curricular accommodation of religious education is almost always dissociated from the latter’s political significance and the teaching of religious worldviews is often limited to serving social, (multi)culturalist and epistemological purposes. When RE is made relevant to political identity this occurs strictly within the confines of a liberal sense of citizenship. In this article, the relevance of religious teaching to citizenship is approached through a lens that is critical of liberal secularism and of its confounding view of the social and the political while distant from faith‐ and validity‐based debates on RE. The article aims to render some rigid demarcations of politics and religiousness problematic and to show that religions comprise portrayals of egalitarianism and visions of a better life that can become taught material conducive to a reflective political citizenship beyond liberalism.

John Locke, Christian Liberty, and the Predicament of Liberal Toleration

Recently, scholars have disputed whether Locke's political theory should be read as the groundwork of secular liberalism or as a Protestant political theology. Focusing on Locke's mature theory of toleration, the article raises a central question: What if these two readings are compatible? That is, what would be the consequences if Locke's political philosophy has theological foundations, but has also given shape to secular liberalism? Examining Locke's theory in the Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), the article argues that this is indeed the case. The liberal model of toleration is a secularization of the theology of Christian liberty and its division of society into a temporal political kingdom and the spiritual kingdom of Christ. Therefore, when liberal toleration travels beyond the boundaries of the Christian West or when western societies become multicultural, it threatens to lose its intelligibility.

Slippery Speech Acts: Conference Report: Gender, Race, Islam and the “War on Terror”

In May 2006, I convened a symposium on the topic of “Gender, Race, Islam and the War on Terror,” consisting of public presentations and closed workshops with invited participants. The purpose of the symposium was to consider the extent to which transnational feminism could speak to the issues facing Muslim women in a post-9/11 context within Canada and beyond, and the extent to which secular feminism could engage with “believing women” in a shared quest for liberation and equality. This essay offers an analytical account of the highlights of the symposium from the perspective of a non-Muslim, racialized, transnational feminist.

Islamic Feminism in India: Indian Muslim Women Activists and the Reform of Muslim Personal Law

AbstractI describe here a nascent ‘Islamic feminist’ movement in India, dedicated to the goal of achieving gender equity under Muslim Personal Law. In justifying their demands, these women activists refer neither to the Indian Constitution nor to the universalistic human rights principles that guide secular feminists campaigning for passage of a gender-neutral uniform civil code of personal law, but rather to the authority of the Qur'an—which, they claim, grants Muslim women numerous rights that in practice are routinely denied them. They accuse the male ‘ulamaof foisting ‘patriarchal’ interpretations of the Qur'an on the unlettered Muslim masses and assert their right to read the Qur'an for themselves and interpret it in a woman-friendly way. Their activities reflect an increasing ‘fragmentation of religious authority’ in the globalizing Muslim world, associated with the spread of mass education, new forms of media and transport and a mobile labour force, in which clerical claims to exclusive authoritative knowledge are being questioned by a wide variety of new voices, women's among them. Whether it can ultimately succeed is an open question but the movement is clearly having an impact, even on the clerical establishment itself, insofar as the legal issues it considers most pressing for women are concerned.