Secular Discourse Research Articles

Hybrid Perspectives: Muslim and Secular Discourses in French Politics

Increased immigration, especially from Muslim-majority countries, has been broadly debated in French socio-political life. Frictions have been common between two groups: Muslims and non-Muslims who identify themselves as 'defenders of secularism'. At the same time, however, hybrid strategies have emerged in which Muslims and non-Muslims have sought to culturally and socially adapt themselves. Through a review of online French media published between 2017 and 2020, as understood using social constructivism, this study explores these groups' construction of hybrid identities. Discourses were analyzed to identify their ideological schemes, utterances, references, and arguments, with linguistic analysis facilitated by NVIVO software. Analysis shows that the hybrid discourses of non-Muslim 'defenders of secularism' have been more prominent than those of Muslims. Furthermore, the narrative tendencies of these hybrid discourses indicate that non-Muslim groups have sought to promote diversity in religious practices in France, while Muslim groups have sought to integrate themselves into broader French society.Meningkatnya jumlah imigran, terutama imigran muslim menjadi persoalan sendiri pada kehidupan sosial politik Prancis. Seringkali terjadi gesekan-gesekan narasi mengenai keislaman antara dua kelompok, yaitu kelompok muslim; dan non-muslim yang melabelkan dirinya sebagai ‘pembela sekularitas’. Namun di sisi lain, muncul pula narasi hibrid yang memuat strategi adaptasi budaya dan sosial dari kelompok muslim maupun kelompok non-muslim. Maka dari itu, penelitian ini membahas konstruksi wacana hibrid pada dua kelompok tersebut di media online Prancis dari tahun 2017 sampai 2020 dengan menggunakan perspektif konstruktivitis sosial dalam masyarakat menurut Lev Vygostky. Data wacana dianalisis dengan skema ideologis, tuturan, referensial dan argumentasi dengan melihat konteks wacana dengan menggunakan alat bantu linguistik NVIVO. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa wacana hibrid dari kelompok non-muslim ‘pembela sekularisme’ lebih tinggi daripada wacana hibrid dari kelompok muslim. Selain itu, pola-pola narasi konstruksi wacana hibrid menunjukkan bahwa kelompok kelompok non-muslim bersikap terbuka dengan adanya keberagaman agama dan praktik keagamaan di negara Prancis; dan kelompok muslim berkeinginan untuk dapat berintegrasi dengan masyarakat Prancis.

Women, Writing and the Iraqi Baʿthist State. Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968–2003

Women, Writing and the Iraqi Baʿthist State. Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968–2003

Resonant selves in ethical and theological perspective: On personhood and identity formation

AbstractAbsorbing insights from secular discourses on personhood, theology can provide added perspectives on human identity. (1) An attributive view of personal dignity based on divine and social recognition encompasses both capacity‐oriented and relation‐centred views of personhood. (2) Gregory of Nyssa shows Patristic resources for multifaceted ecological self in some contrast to the inner‐Trinitarian idea of ecclesial persons in John D. Zizioulas. (3) An economic Trinitarian model of personhood is proposed, in which the indwelling of Christ is balanced by a pneumatological anthropology. (4) Entering contemporary discussions, the paper proposes a “sonar” or “re‐sonant” understanding of the human per‐sona, hereby accommodating and responding to particularistic challenges to the idea of a shared human personhood.

Lale’s un/veiling trajectory: shifting contours of pious citizenship in contemporary Turkey

ABSTRACT Based on long-term fieldwork among members of the formerly influential Sunni Muslim Hizmet community in Istanbul in 2015, this contribution traces the ‘un/veiling trajectory’ of a woman called Lale, referring to her shifting engagement with the headscarf over a period of almost three decades. Rather than exemplifying a fragmented religiosity, these shifts are understood as articulations of Lale’s aspiration to align her Islamic commitment with the secular boundary for public religiosity, which is defined – and frequently redefined – by the Turkish state. Drawing on the notion of ‘pious citizenship’, Lale’s un/veiling trajectory constitutes the ethnographic ground for unravelling how, in Turkey, the secular boundary for public religiosity has reshaped Islamic ethical practice in three different ways: through state-imposed restrictions, as citizenly self-discipline, and by animating contestation between different religious Muslim groups. The contribution thus argues that Lale’s shifting engagement with the headscarf articulates a mode of Islamic commitment that is intimately, yet uneasily, intertwined with secular discourses, aesthetics, and sensitivities. In so doing, it brings forth an interplay between Islam and secularism that is much more intricate than the image of a binary opposition allows.

Finding a ‘Shi’a voice’ in Europe: minority representation and the unsettling of secular humanitarianism in the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’

ABSTRACT In contemporary Europe, where the hegemony of modern secular governance remains largely uncontested, how do minority religious communities – especially Muslims – negotiate the tension between religious duty and forms of secularised civic belonging? This contribution takes Twelver Shi’a Muslim activism in Europe as a starting place to interrogate the encounter between Islamic and secular values. In particular, I examine the emergence of what I call the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’, through which Shi’a Muslims are seeking to gain minority recognition within the European context. Combining elements of Shi’a Islamic ethics with the language of secular humanitarianism, the discourse of ‘Shi’a rights’ is emancipatory and outward-facing while simultaneously being exclusionary and particularistic in the way it promotes specific understandings of what it means to be ‘Shi’a’. Crucially, I argue that this ambivalent nature of ‘Shi’a rights’ is a product of the encounter with secular liberal governance, especially the secular ideal of religious equality. Rather than representing a natural division between religion and society, contemporary secularism cultivates particular ethical attachments that ultimately serve to problematise the status of religious minorities. A focus on ‘Shi’a rights’ in Europe thus serves to illuminate the fractures and fissures that contemporary secular discourse seeks to hide.

Feeling out alternatives within secularity

ABSTRACT This essay reassembles the fragments of secularity offered in the thematic issue ‘Anthropology Within and Without the Secular Condition.’ Understanding what secularism often affirms, such as a materialist ontology and an empiricist epistemology, makes it easier to recognize the vast diversity within the secular discursive tradition. Exploring this internal diversity is important for giving a better account of the secular condition and for finding alternatives to the most common ways of being secular, which have become worthy objects of critique. This essay then looks more closely at two aspects of the secular that are usually overlooked: a poetic language ideology and the locus of explanatory satisfaction. A better understanding of what it means to be secular, in all its variety, will help scholars better control for the ways in which secular discourse shapes their feelings and the knowledge they desire to produce.

The Holy See and the Global Environmental Movements

Laudato Si has garnered acclaim from world leaders and actors who support care for the environment. The encyclical has received praise for its ability to communicate the Church’s environmental views to the secular world. Yet the views of the Holy See in global environmental issues prior to Laudato Si have received inadequate attention. We conduct a historical review of the Holy See’s involvement in United Nations environmental efforts from the mid-20th Century to the present day. This reflects much of the work done in the late 20th Century by local dioceses all over the world. In doing so, we draw from the Holy See’s record of apostolic letters and speeches penned by Popes and various Church officials in the 20th Century, which we draw from the Vatican archives and libraries. We show that a clear critique of industrial pollution first emerged in the official addresses and letters penned by Pope Paul VI in the early 1960s. We also show that the Holy See has joined the global community on the pursuit of sustainable development that promotes human dignity, and the right to development and to a healthy environment for all, mainly the poorest populations. We argue that Laudato Si is better thought of as a culmination of the Catholic Church’s social teachings, which state that concern for the environment means respect for human life and dignity, promotion of the common good and the virtue of solidarity, and exercising responsibility to the poor and vulnerable. These are principles that align closely with the secular discourse on sustainable development.

Pathogenesis: Freud’s Paul and the question of historical truth

This article retrieves Freud’s Paul as a forgotten predecessor and untapped critic of the “return to Paul” in contemporary political theology and continental philosophy. Given that Sigmund Freud published Moses and Monotheism in 1939 having barely escaped from Vienna, the text’s reception has justly been dominated by the question of Freud’s identification with Moses and the relationship between psychoanalysis and Judaism. However, I argue that this narrow focus has obscured the more fundamental problem of the connection between religion and Freud’s enigmatic notion of “historical truth,” which he works out not through Moses but through Saint Paul. To do so, I first show how Freud’s genealogy of monotheism is modeled on the pathogenesis of hysterical symptoms. I then trace how Freud deepens his investigation into the etiology of symptom-formation until he arrives at the notion of historical truth and the archaic heritage that transmits it. Lastly, I demonstrate that Freud presents himself less as a Pauline figure than he does Paul as a proto-analyst. Through this staging, I contend that Freud parochializes the claims of Christianity as symptomatic of a more archaic historical truth that psychoanalysis alone is able to access. Freud’s Paul demonstrates that it is not a question of whether but how ostensibly modern secular discourses inherit the theological traditions in which they are imbedded. Reading Freud as a philosopher of religion ultimately offers an indictment of any philosophy or emancipatory politics naively modeled on theological universalism.

Images of Place, Secularity and Gentrification: On Urban Religious Belonging in an Inner City Neighbourhood in Oslo

Through extensive fieldwork conducted in an inner city neighbourhood in Oslo, Norway, the authors found that a variation of actors and settings evoked different religious and secular images of place. In what ways is the urban experience shaping or challenging the religious sense of spatial belonging, and why is a secular discourse dominating the scene? In order to obtain such images and sense of place in the context of a recently established area based initiative, we interviewed representatives for the religious communities localized in the neighbourhoods of Tøyen and Grønland. Here we encountered no religiously infused language despite a sizeable spatial religious presence. In the sciences of religion, the view of a separation between the secular and the religious as a social fact and a social norm in modern societies dominates. We argue that there is a privatization of religion (Casanova 1994) within the larger discourse of urban renewal and gentrification. Simultaneously we find the reverse of Taylor’s (2007) proposal of the emptying of religion in social space: namely a filling up of religion in social spaces, that we label ‘urban religious belonging’. This article provides further empirically based knowledge into the connection of religion, secularism and the urban sphere, the difference between belief and representations or discourses, as well as a methodological approach for studying these connections and fractures.

Secularism form an Islamic prospection

This article looks or reviews the contemporary discourse of secularism from Islamic Prospection. Observation of facts, including a religious consciousness, and the politicalreligious language of recent times, it is shown that there is no natural given boundary separating the two dimensions, the whole discussion derives from an advanced or traditional state from a religious mind. In the nineteenth and the twentieth-century thoughts in an international era by invaders, for example, in the fields of law, education, administration, and mass culture, there was experienced a visible process of change towards secularity.

Living with the Norm

This article examines the transition ritual (nirvanam) in a specific community of thirunangais, a regional transfeminine community characterized by ritual practices of worship and labor, to inquire into forms of religious worlding and subject- formation that take place at the margins of dominant systems of religion, citizenship, and gender. Unlike those who identify exclusively with the category of transgender, thirunangais’ formations of self and subjecthood draw not only from modern and secular discourses such as those of human rights and identity politics but also from religious discourses and practices. These involve embodied experiences of sacrifice and pain that are considered “premodern” and abject even within hegemonic norms of religion in India. Drawing from how thirunangai narratives of self construct the nirvanam as an encompassing assemblage of both ritual observances and more medicalized practices of sex reassignment, the article looks at how thirunangais consistently queer modern prescriptions of the relationship among political, private, and religious spheres. What can thirunangais tell us about those bodies, practices, and discourses that are seen as inimical to the constitution of the modern religious subject in postcolonial contexts?

Дипломатический межрелигиозный диалог в системе межрелигиозных отношений

The article examines the practice of interaction between the heads of religious communities which is referred to as “diplomatic interreligious dialogue”. One of the most common forms of the manifestation of diplomatic dialogue is participation of religious leaders in a variety of interreligious summits and conferences. The first part of the article briefly describes main types of interreligious dialogue: polemical, cognitive, peacemaking and partner ship. The second part gives a general description of diplomatic interreligious dialogue that can be considered as one of a type of peacemaking dialogue. The third part of the article analyzes several critical arguments in relation to diplomatic dialogue: this form of communication cannot be called a dialogue in the true sense; predominance of secular discourse; low efficiency. The author has come to the conclusion that diplomatic dialogue occupies its niche in the system of interreligious relations. And it is incorrect to evaluate diplomatic dialogue from the point of view of other types of interreligious dialogue that pursue different goals and are based on different principles.

Beyond secularism and religion: Jean-Luc Nancy on global monotheism

Known for its recent treatment of theological themes, contemporary European philosophy has been at the forefront of critical inquiry into the interface between religion and secular discourse. One of the most original philosophers within this movement is Jean-Luc Nancy, whose deconstruction of Christianity project frames an intertwining of religion and secular modernity beyond the binary opposition between theism and atheism. In this article, I tease out the hitherto under-acknowledged references to Judaism and Islam within Nancy’s project in order to lay out more clearly his philosophical vision of the contemporary landscape of secular modernity and the place of the three main monotheistic faiths within it. In doing so, I elucidate the original contribution Nancy’s philosophy can make to a rethinking of the debate between secularism and religion more broadly.

Secularism, Security and the Weak State: De-democratizing the 2011 Yemeni Uprising

The 2011 Yemeni Uprising, generally subsumed under the “Arab Spring” in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, was popularly portrayed as being “secular” but subsequently hijacked by “religious” forces. Such ubiquitous assumptions take for granted that democracy is essentially secular. This essay examines the secularizing effects embedded in the language and epistemology of security concerns invoked by international and regional powers vis-à-vis Yemen, allowing powerful states to intervene in matters of politics and religion. They generate and are generated by a culture of apprehension, which is cultivated and circulated within a discursive social space of security practices. This culture, I contend, has produced Yemen as a “security crisis” over the longue durée, and was articulated through discourses of republic protection and weak state security since the Cold War, and given new life by the “Global War on Terror”. It is these secular security discourses and the culture of apprehension they generate, rallied by the international and regional powers such as the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which discursively produced and maintained a “weak” Yemeni state, thereby justifying the de-democratizing interventions in the Yemeni polity. I conclude by arguing that attending to the effect of such discourses may explain the world’s largest humanitarian crisis Yemen has become.

The concept of glory in the Russian religious culture and secular discourse

This article is dedicated to conceptualization of the notion of glory in the Russian religious culture and secular discourse. Texts of the Holy Scripture indicate etymological relation of glory to the Ancient Hebrew root kbd (to be heavy, important, liver), which imposes additional meanings to the concept, not recorded in the dictionaries. For example, ancient Jews interpreted glory as a true value of the objects of corporeal and incorporeal world, which could be measured, “weighed”. Usage of the word glory in folklore, particularly in Christmas carols, as an imperative incantation can testify to the belief in the magic qualities of this word, as well as to connection of paganism and a religious rituals in people’s mind. As a result of comparative and hermeneutic analysis, the author concludes that in the religious context, glory retains the idea of the interconnectivity and interconditionality of hearing and speech, typical to the Indo-European root kleu, from which is stems from. A centuries-old process of de-ontologization led the loss of the internal form and value elements of semantic structure of glory, which caused distortion of this Christian concept in consciousness of the Russian native speakers. In the secular, profane discourse, fame became the key meaning of glory. However, in consciousness of the Russian native speakers, the word glory remains a significant source of cultural-linguistic information, which cannot be understood without reference to the history, traditions and religion of the nation.

Contract and secular custom in early Republican China: the Shanghai Native Bankers’ Guild, 1917–1928

ABSTRACT Personalised guanxi are often seen as the backbone of Chinese social and commercial life. Historical evidence, however, suggests that a number of impersonal economic and social mechanisms existed that limited, altered or extended guanxi-type personal relations. At the heart of these mechanisms were contracts, governed by principles of law and putative custom. This paper examines the status of customs in Republican-era contracts, showing how “customs” were manufactured by commercial interest groups to create secular and effective contracts. The empirical basis for these findings is a case study of the Shanghai Native Bankers’ Guild (Shanghai qianye gonghui) between 1917 and 1928. Native banks (qianzhuang) carefully crafted their “customs” to fit into the rapidly evolving institutional context and the secular discourse on legal reform in early Republican China. While the Guild had to cede power to commercial arbitrators and courts, it created a shared set of norms that facilitated impersonal contracting. Despite being a relatively limited case study in scope, this paper also suggests that the trend towards secular contracting went well beyond the city limits of Republican-era Shanghai.

Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap

Deafening Modernism: Embodied Language and Visual Poetics in American LiteratureBlasphemous Modernism: The 20th-Century Word Made FleshTransatlantic Aliens: Modernism, Exile, and Culture in Midcentury America

Deafening Modernism: Embodied Language and Visual Poetics in American LiteratureBlasphemous Modernism: The 20th-Century Word Made FleshTransatlantic Aliens: Modernism, Exile, and Culture in Midcentury America

Secularisation of Religion as the Source of Religious Gender Stereotypes

Secular–religious dichotomy has been criticised in discourse on secularisation theory as well as in discussions of the relationship between secular and religious feminism. Feminist theorists have criticised the secular–religious divide of feminism for overlooking facts such as the inherent gendering of this dichotomy, the participation of women believers in the gender equality movement since its inception, and the contributions of feminist theologians and gender studies scholars who use their respective religious traditions as a basis for gender egalitarianism. This article will criticise secular–religious dichotomy for overlooking the fact that secular, rather than religious, principles underlie gender stereotypes. Namely, Christian and Islamic theological anthropology has accepted philosophical postulates regarding the nature of women and used them to build models of subordination and complementarity of gender relations, thereby neglecting the egalitarian anthropology that can be developed based on the holy scriptures of both traditions. One of the challenges in exploring the secular-religious dichotomy can be found in the anti-gender movement in which believers join secular organizations and use secular discourse to advocate and preserve gender stereotypes.

A CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SIN AND TRANSHUMANISM IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE: THE PROMETHEAN CONCERN OF PRIDE

Transhumanism and its attempts to enhance what it means to be human and overcome natural limitations is often described, also in secular discourses, as “playing God”. As such, it is often seen as forming part of the Promethean project. The sin of pride therefore, makes a fitting point of departure for responding to the challenges that transhumanism raises in the public sphere from the perspective of Christian theology. In this contribution, transhumanism is offered as a theological response in the public sphere, situating the discussion in public theology. While, traditionally, humility serves as the inverse of pride, in this contribution, I propose that within the context of biotechnological human enhancement, vulnerability can serve as a countermeasure to pride within the public discourse on transhumanism, utilising sin language.