Secular Notions Research Articles

A case for democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism

This paper proposes a theory of democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism developed by Shadi Hamid in his book “The Problem of Democracy”. Democratic pluralism will leverage pluralism to create a possibility for reconciliation between liberalism, secularism, religion, and democracy. It presents a framework of democratic pluralism based on four key elements: (1) a conception of democracy that includes performance and political action in the public sphere beyond electoral participation; (2) recognition of diversity and intercultural dialog, alongside the agonistic dimension of pluralism; (3) moderation of individual autonomy and identity politics; and (4) pluralistic accommodation of religion. The paper critiques Hamid’s monolithic notions of liberalism, secularism, and democracy, suggesting that more nuanced approaches to these concepts are necessary. It contends that rather than abandoning liberalism and secularism, exploring compatible versions of liberalism and Islam within a pluralistic framework offers a more promising path for reforming religion and polity in the Muslim world.

Virtue and Artificial Intelligence

Two questions concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and virtue are explored. The first question is whether AI is capable of virtue, and the second question explores if AI can assist humans in the acquisition of virtue. It is argued that AI cannot be a moral agent and therefore cannot genuinely be virtuous. However, AI can perform behaviors that are in accordance with virtuous behavior. The notion of "virtue-by-proxy" is introduced in which virtuous programmers can strive to design AI programs that are trained to mimic certain virtues or behave in accordance with virtue. Next, it is argued that since AI systems can nudge humans toward repeated practices and habits, they will inevitably shape and form users. Thus, AI systems might be designed to assist humans with virtue formation; likewise, they could be misdirected to encourage certain vices. Finally, the concept of virtue in the Christian tradition is contrasted with secular notions of virtue and is used to inform limits on the role of AI in virtue formation.

Review Essay on Jacques Berlinerblau, Secularism: The Basics

Abstract Jacques Berlinerblau’s “Secularism: The Basics” asks how much and what kind of state separation from religion is required to secure the multiple notions of secularism that have come to dominate debates on faith in the global context. By organizing the book around a distinct set of issues, including questions about the meanings of secularism and its appearance in different contexts that benefit liberal democracy, Berlinerblau implicitly gives voice to the continuity of the tradition of secularism for a large segment of the academic field that has been evolving for the last three decades. While opposing secularism as a monocultural phenomenon, he grapples with the normative pre-definition of political secularism that refers to legally binding actions of the secular state that seek to regulate the relationship between itself and religious citizens and between religious citizens.

Debating secularism: A liberal cosmopolitan perspective.

In the classical notion of secularism, privatization of religion is an essential component of freedom and equality between citizens, so that rights are granted to individuals rather than to communities. The currently dominant objections to this notion in the literature are the multiculturalist thesis, primarily expounded by Tariq Modood, and the critique of secularism through the "genealogical" method, associated with Talal Asad and his followers. This article critically assesses these objections and defends the classical notion of secularism from a liberal cosmopolitan perspective. The argument that the classical notion perfectly addresses the questions of freedom of conscience and diversity of belief is further supported by reference to an ignored source, Thomas More's Utopia.

On conceptions of time in human rights studies: The afterlife, Islam, and reparative justice in post-uprising Tunisia

This article argues that conceptions of time are undertheorized in human rights studies and that such conceptions have a significant impact on how people participate in systems of justice. Within the context of the transitional justice process launched in Tunisia in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring—a context deeply shaped by an Islamist/secular divide—I examine how competing notions of time led to opposing modes of participation in reparative justice. Specifically, I analyze the Islamic principle thawāb (reward in the afterlife for suffering experienced on earth) as a theological notion of time and show how it structured Islamist victims’ participation in reparations measures. Observing that critiques of reparative justice have developed through a strictly secular notion of time, this article foregrounds Islamic concepts that are still underrepresented in such studies, particularly Islamic notions of time and the afterlife. I argue that thawāb contests the universalism of the secular, linear notion of past-present-future dominant in human rights and transitional justice studies.

Pro и contra социологии спасения

The article is devoted to clarifying the different theoretical contexts and problematic tensions that arise between social theory and theology. The authors aim to avoid engaging in a broad theoretical debate about the relevance or irrelevance of the concepts of secularism and the post-secular, and the fate of religion and religious institutions in the (unfinished) project of modernity. Equally problematic is the position of John Milbank, who explores the sociological and political implications of Christian theology. Instead, the authors seek to show the eschatological, and in this sense theological, dispositions of the social theory itself. The authors see this unreducible theological residue in the figure of alienation or self-externalization, which must either be overcome or maintained for a full control of the self. This figure of externality is captured in the notion of autonomy. The latter represents the continuous eschatological horizon of social theory and its way of answering the question “what may I hope for?” The closest philosophers and social theorists who share this view of the relationship between theology and social theory are Jacob Taubes and Jean- Pierre Dupuis. Although the authors of this issue may not share this view of social theory as an eschatological discipline, still, if we speak of a common leading motive uniting the authors and the editors of this volume, it is the theoretical exhaustion of the notion of secularization and the search for new possibilities of thematizing the relation between social theory and theology - by means of ontology, ethics, sociology, and economic theory. The project of such a sociology of salvation goes beyond the boundaries of political theology, because the problem of power, which is characteristic of it, has its own gravitational pull.

The Scramble for Religion and Secularism in Pre-Colonial Africa

The debate on the existence of religion in Africa is far from over; it reverberates in new dimensions but asking the same old questions in newer ways. The same argument is being extended to secularism. This article takes a critical look at the concepts, religion and secularism in sub-Saharan pre-colonial Africa, raising the recurring question still maintained by the West whether there was ‘religion’ in Africa at the turn of colonialism. It argues that where no religion exists, the notion of secularism as understood by the West, cannot also exist since the latter is not just the ‘opposite’ of the former, but in actual fact, streams from it. However, since the position of ‘non-religion’ in Africa could not be sustained by the West, the question of how and why ‘secularism’ was not also ‘discovered’ in pre-colonial Africa spontaneously arises. Not denying the widespread diversities of religious beliefs in pre-colonial Africa, this paper argues for the existence of religion, and presence and praxis of religio-secularity, which is non-atheistic in nature that also foregrounds the practice of ‘secularity’ in post-colonial Africa.

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

Sweden, Inc.: Temporal Sovereignty of the Realm and People from the Middle Ages to Modernity

Wirkungsgeschichte and Background Metaphorics: A Reading of the Gadamer-Blumenberg Debate about Secularization

The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, it aims to analyze the philosophical debate between Gadamer and Blumenberg concerning the notion of secularization, which, in the author's view, has received less attention than it deserves; secondly, it intends thereby to shed light on an ontological ambiguity in Gadamer's hermeneutics, unintentionally detected by Blumenberg in his reply to Gadamer's review of The Legitimacy of the Modern Age. The importance of the paper is both historical-philosophical and theoretical: it spells out different aspects of a philosophical discussion whose relevance concern not only the secularization debate, but more generally the philosophy of history and the role of metaphors in understanding. The most relevant original contribution consists in the usage of Blumenberg's notion of background metaphorics as a tool for interpreting the role of the notion of history of effects in Gadamer's hermeneutics.

What is democratic backsliding?

What is democratic backsliding?

Mawdudi's Comprehensive Conception of God: A Comparative Study of Mawdudi's Concept of Rabb and Ilah With Common Secular Notions of God

Syyied Abul A'la Mawdudi is well known for his contribution to political Islamic thought and to the study of the Quran. This article will examine one aspect of Mawdudi’s work that has not been usually highlighted; this article compares Mawdudi’s concept of Rabb & Ilah to the common secular notions of God. This comparison allows the notions of God that are dominant in secular society to be critically examined on the background of Mawdudi’s thought. From Mawdudi’s works it is clear that in his view most Muslims have subconscious accepted secular definitions of what God is. Mawdudi focuses on two specific Arabic terms, “Ilah” and “Rabb” to understand the concept of God in his book entitled, “Four Basic Quranic Terms”. This article will investigate Mawdudi's unique contribution to conceptualizing the terms “Ilah” and “Rabb” and how his unique conception of them provides a critique of secular education's own conception of the similar terms. The research uses a comparative methodology because in only via comparing Mawdudi’s ideas with that of secularism can the uniqueness of his ideas become clearly seen. This study finds that Mawdudi’s conception of God is more sophisticated and nuanced than secularism tends to portray. The article concludes that Mawdudi’s thought, especially on the issue of God, can provide fresh perspectives to critically engaging with secularism.

Unveiling the Unseen: The Role of the Gulf over the Sudanese Transition Period

Sudan, an African-Arab country, has in recent years been witnessing the political transformation process of the revolution-coup spiral. The Sudanese people, who overthrew the 30-year-old regime, are not satisfied with the revolution that came into power in 2019. This new conjuncture, which can barely be called a revolution, did not solve the structural problems such as corruption, unemployment, injustice, or inability to rule. Therefore, the fire of revolution and the desire for democracy have not yet died out in Sudan. However, the role of external and internal actors influencing the country’s transformation process deserves scrutiny. In this sense, this piece seeks to answer the question of how Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been actively involved in and diverting the transformation process in Sudan. The main claim of the study is that the Saudi-UAE axis is diligent in establishing an authoritarian military regime in Sudan. The notions of secularization and normalization with Israel stand out among the projects that the UAE is trying to implement in Sudan. The UAE and Saudi Arabia, using petro-dollar as a tool, are directly engaging in Sudan’s transition period.

Writing Orisha Music: Text, Tradition, and Creativity in Afro-Cuban Liturgy

This essay examines the flow of music associated with orisha—anthropomorphic deities—across networks defined variously by art, scholarship, folklore, and religion, all of which overlap and nourish each other. Transmitted via oral tradition, written texts, and multimedia technologies, a handful of orisha-themed songs are analyzed as case studies in the subtle nexus of liturgy and cultural authenticity. Taken together, the songs shed light on a broader phenomenon in which creatively-minded, ostensibly-secular iterations of culture play a significant role in the dissemination and ongoing codification of ritual orthodoxy. Orisha music traditions are analyzed as a fertile ground for a multitude of devotional and/or artistic expressions, many of which have a particularly ambiguous relationship to the concept of religion. In this context, the fluid movements of orisha music between ostensibly sacred and secular contexts can be usefully understood as not only common, but as a conspicuous and characteristic aspect of the tradition. The essay’s structure and rhetorical strategies offer distinct layers of cultural and historical commentary, reflecting a multi-vocal tradition of exchanges among orisha music scholars, artists, and ritual experts. The essay’s historical analysis of orisha music further suggests that a host of subtle, seldom-discussed phenomena—multilingualism, liturgical ambiguity, and transmission via multimedia technologies—are not necessarily aberrant or irregular, but rather vital themes which have resonated clearly across the Afro-Atlantic for at least a century. By obligating us to attend to both musical meaning and cultural context, the essay’s case studies of orisha music shed light on the mingling and synthesis of elements from varied historical sources, languages, and cultural idioms, each of which represent distinct notions of tradition, creativity, religiosity, and secularism.

‘Come, Follow Me’, The Sacralising of the Home, and The Guardian of the Family: How Do European Women Negotiate the Domestic Space in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?

In October 2018, the Prophet Russell M. Nelson informed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that the Church teaching curriculum would shift focus away from lessons taught on Sunday. Instead, members were now asked to engage with ‘home-centred, church-supported’ religious instruction using the Church materials ‘Come, Follow Me’. In a religion where Church leaders still defend the idealised family structure of a stay-at-home mother and a father as the provider, the renewed emphasis on the domestic sphere as the site for Church teaching could also reinforce traditional Mormon gender roles. This article draws upon the lived religion of Latter-day Saint women in Sweden, Greece and England to understand how they negotiate gender in their homes. Looking at the implementation of ‘Come, Follow Me’ of sacralising of the home as a gendered practice, there appears to be reinforcing the primacy of the domestic space in the reproduction of religious practices and doctrinal instruction. Simultaneously, in conceptualising a gender role, the guardian of the family, I show the ways that European Latter-day Saint women are providing, protecting and nurturing their families. The domestic space then becomes instrumental in providing space for more nuanced, complex gender constructs that accommodate Mormon beliefs, cultural context and secular notions of gender without destabilising the institutional structure.

Bertrand Russell, Fu Tong, and the Emergence of Scientific Secularism in Early 1920s China

Abstract In the May Fourth period (1917–1921), the Chinese intellectual world saw the emergence of various forms of secularism, which culminated around the year 1922, when a nationwide non-religious movement was formed. The Western-educated philosopher Fu Tong influenced and contributed to the discourse on science and religion in the early 1920s, and his philosophy of religion served as a conduit for the introduction of Bertrand Russell’s ideas about religion into Chinese public and intellectual discourses. This article establishes a connection between Fu and the lectures on religious belief that Russell delivered in Peking in January 1921 and documents the transfer of ideas from Russell to Fu’s philosophical writings on religion between 1921 and 1922. In its central analysis, the article focuses on Fu’s philosophy of religion and his theory of scientific secularism, which he developed as a critique of the Marxist-led non-religious movement from 1922 onward. The discussion also sheds light on the network of intellectual connections underlying the emergence of the notion of scientific secularism in 1920s China.

Review: Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion, by Mohammed A. Bamyeh

Review: <i>Lifeworlds of Islam: The Pragmatics of a Religion</i>, by Mohammed A. Bamyeh

Concordata Vaticano e Moçambique (2012): laicidade, liberdade religiosa e educação

O presente artigo aborda a complexidade da laicidade na educação da sociedade moçambicana, tendo especial atenção na análise da Concordata firmada entre os Estados de Moçambique e Vaticano, 2012. Este acordo contém a autorização para que o “Ensino Religioso Católico” (ERC) ligado à Igreja Católica seja realizado em qualquer unidade escolar moçambicana. O tema exige aprofundamento e investigação sociológica por se tratar de uma tensão existente entre a noção de laicidade que o recente Estado laico de direito democrático, também baseado no “respeito e na garantia dos direitos e liberdades fundamentais”, exprime em sua carta Magna e, a Concordata que disponibiliza o Sistema Nacional de Educação para ações de cunho proselitistas inserido em um sistema confessional oferecido à população. A problemática possibilita refletir sobre a estratégia católica internacional junto aos países lusófonos, bem como, relacionar a adoção do ERC nas escolas/unidades que prestam serviços de educação contratados pelo governo moçambicano à população em geral. Tendo em vista a pluralidade religiosa local e a imposição do ERC nas respectivas escolas. A pesquisa foi realizada de forma bibliográfica, eletrônica e documental (May, 2004) sob a perspectiva qualitativa com a base teórica das Ciências Sociais e Sociologia das Religiões. Logo, a oferta confessional, estabelecida da Concordata Internacional entre o Vaticano e Moçambique, e as dinâmicas decorrentes, além de contribuírem para o enfraquecimento da pluralidade religiosa e, portanto, da democracia, tornam a educação um campo de disputas também religiosas no país.

The Tyranny of Health: Juli Zeh's “Body Utopia” Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess (2009)

Juli Zeh, who enjoys an international reputation, is one of the most gifted and productive writers of Germany today. Her dystopian tale Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess (2009; English translation, 2012) represents a lively, intelligent, and innovative addition to the genre. It presents a picture of a benevolent dictatorship that demands good health as the highest duty of its citizens, in a sequence of dramatic scenes combining the virtues of a thriller with a dystopia focusing on the present-day preoccupation with health and the body. Most segments are presented as scenes of a trial against a biologist who is accused of rebellion against “The Method,” the ruling order of the future state, whose dominant ideology is “Health as the Principle of State Legitimacy.” Thus metaphysical morality and Enlightenment values such as freedom, democracy, and justice have been replaced by a scientific, secular notion of life as the ultimate criterion and value.

O TRABALHO LITERÁRIO PRESENTE NO POEMA MODERNISTA COBRA NORATO: UMA LEITURA DA TRADIÇÃO NA RUPTURA.

Além de empenharem-se por uma autonomia cultural brasileira, é sabido que as obras nascidas sob a égide ideológica da Semana de 22 esforçaram-se em desprezar convictamente a tradição e os cânones formais. Cobra Norato, poema maior de Raul Bopp, publicado pela primeira vez em 1931, pretendeu confirmar tais premissas. Entretanto, no substrato do folclore amazônico que permeia esta poesia, podemos observar um trabalho literário que recupera metáforas e insumos clássicos. Solicitando a noção de pathosformel (Warburg, 2010), o presente artigo investiga como a linguagem poética de Cobra Norato (1931) repete magistralmente o imaginário mítico em sua macro e microestruturas, apontando para uma noção secular sobre arte – e por conseguinte sobre a Literatura - como artefato estético. Em paralelo a tal questão, este trabalho analisa como signos comuns à cultura clássica atravessam esta poesia de corrente modernista. Veremos assim, que o modo de refazer poeticamente o mito serpentário não se furtará ao diálogo com a antiguidade greco-latina, sugerindo a sobrevivência da tradição na ruptura.

Secularism and religious traditions in non-confessional Swedish preschools: entanglements of religion and cultural heritage

ABSTRACT Swedish preschools are supposed to be non-confessional. At the same time, they are supposed to pass on a cultural heritage of a nation where the Lutheran Church has permeated society for centuries. Based on a study of traditions and religion in Swedish preschools, this article describes and discusses how preschools work with religion as an aspect of cultural heritage and as regularly occurring activities and themes during the preschool year. The empirical data consist of a survey about traditions in preschools, video ethnography in two preschools, and group interviews with preschool staff. The article centres around the question of how a cultural heritage is passed on without simultaneously passing on religion. Although the data show that all preschools have special activities in relation to Christmas and Easter, it also demonstrate a reluctance to speak to the children about what the teachers understand as religion. Drawing on the notion of secularism and Smart’s dimensions of religion, the article shows, on the one hand, the difficulty of emptying religious practices of religion, and on the other hand, the difficulty of reducing religion to only one dimension. As a social phenomenon, religion is complex, contingent, and multidimensional.