Secularism Research Articles

Introduction: Secularism and Islamism: Iran and Beyond

Introduction: Secularism and Islamism: Iran and Beyond

The Universal Constitutionalism in an Age of Religious Diversity. Western Secularism Tested by “New” Cultural Conflicts

An abridged version of this article (reported by Prof. Nicola Colaianni, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”) was presented at the Seminar on “Secularism and Liberal Constitutionalism”, held at the University of LUISS “Guido Carli” (Rome) on 6th July 2010.This article is due to be published in the International Review of Sociology, in 2011. SUMMARY: 1. Introduction – 2. Relation-Collaboration between the State and Churches in Constitutional Democracies – 3. The laicite a la francaise Tested by a Deprivatised Religious Process – 3.1. The French Rigid Secularism. Freedom (of Religion) through the State – 4. Canada’s Open Secularism. The question of Religious-Based Family Law Disputes – 4.1 Reasonable Accommodation and “New” Religious Nomoi Groups – 5. Collaboration-Relation between the State and Churches in Italy – 5.1. The Italian Secularism Tested by the New “Religious Geography” – 6. Conclusion. Abstract Under the pressing process of immigration and globalisation many Western constitutional democracies have moved from a number of religions, sharing a common culture, to today's age of diversity. As opposed to the past, the current democracies are facing the lack of overlapping consensus over the basic constitutional laws: namely, the meaning and the scope of freedom of religion, secularism, the separation Church-State, equal treatment and the rule of law. This is because individuals often come to adopt their basic values by very different ways. The nature, scope and force of such values are likely to be affected by competing and, sometimes, contested fundamental values and worldviews. From here stems the pressing tension – or dilemma – between “unity” and “diversity”. This essay starts with general considerations about the freedom of religion principle, strictly related with the “separation” as well as “collaboration” between secular States and Churches; then the author analyses three case-studies (France, Canada and Italy), pointing out some specific legal approaches. In particular he focuses the analyses over the French “droit commun”, the Italian ecclesiastic law and the Canadian arbitral tribunals that, especially in family law, allow disputes to be arbitrated using religious jurisdictions.

Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. By STEVE BRUCE.

Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory. By STEVE BRUCE.

The Law of Organized Religions: Between Establishment and Secularism

The Law of Organized Religions: Between Establishment and Secularism

Gothic riffs: secularizing the uncanny in the European imaginary, 1780-1820

Gothic riffs: secularizing the uncanny in the European imaginary, 1780-1820

Is the secularization hypothesis valid? A panel data assessment for Taiwan

The secularization thesis is based on the idea that a country becomes more secular as it becomes richer and more industrialized. In order to investigate whether this hypothesis is valid, we examine the relationship between religion in Taiwan and economic development across 23 counties by adopting the panel data approach for the period 1998 to 2003. We select six religious activity proxy variables and five economic development variables in a cross-county panel data framework. The evidence indicates that the ratio of females to males has a significantly positive effect and that the literacy rate and population density each have a significantly negative effect on the religious variables. Finally, except for the Christian culture, the unemployment rate has a positive effect on the religious variables. Our findings thus support the view that the religious secularization hypothesis is valid in Taiwan.

History, Political Space, and Shifting Power Relations in Turkey

This article examines the struggle over power in Turkish political space in its historical and geographical context. The author argues that many social and political problems that modern Turkey faces are in fact embedded in the historical structure of power relations and conflicting/competing identities in the country; without a deep understanding of Turkish history, therefore, it is very difficult to map out its social and political geography. The article focuses on nationalism and secularism, two crucial principles in the formation of modern Turkey, as they set the boundaries of differences and spaces of resistance. Long-excluded groups such as Kurds and conservative Muslims have undermined the power of the secular and nationalist Kemalist Turkish establishment, the ultimate power holder since the beginning of the Turkish Republic. Thus recent decades have witnessed an important shift in power relations between the excluded groups and the ruling elite as a result of the democratization of Turkey's polit...

Secularization and Its Discontents by Rob Warner

Secularization and Its Discontents by Rob Warner

The Law of Organized Religions. Between Establishment and Secularism

The Law of Organized Religions. Between Establishment and Secularism

The affluent society and its religious consequences: an empirical investigation of 20 European countries

This paper offers an alternative account of the frequently observed association between gross domestic product growth and a decline in traditional church attendance. The approach follows Durkheim's focus on the social functions of religion. It is hypothesized that economic prosperity leads to an exchange of the mediators of social activities, rather than to an increase in existential security or rationalization: With income development individuals increasingly engage in consumption-related practices. In turn, traditional religious activities, contexts and symbols lose their significance as mediators for social action. This hypothesis is tested, in competition with the ‘updated secularization hypothesis’ of Norris and Inglehart, via multilevel analyses. Data are drawn from the European Social Survey and the Eurobarometer, relying on micro and macro units on 82 (NUTS1) regions from 20 European countries. In accordance with the consumption hypothesis, results indicate that increases in gross domestic product lead to religious decline primarily by supplanting the dominant modes of social action.

La tomba dell’architettura. Il funerale mediatico dell’edificio e della città

It seems that the process of secularization of our culture has made it impossible for us to legitimate death through its ritualization, thus causing its repression. The article seeks to examine the role played by the media and architecture in a process of re-ritualization of death, especially in their function of filling the void of sacredness, through a symbolic metabolization of the fear of death in our late-modern or post-modern civilization. The relationship between media, death and architecture is particularly frequent, especially in the studies of architecture historians and critics, and it seems to be directly correlated to the media texts' degree of spectacularity. The examination of movies and tv programs reveals the many media discourses that correlate architecture to death: the death of architecture, that is, the death of the building (as in the images of 11/9); the death of urbanism, that is, the death of the cities (in this case, disaster movie genre is the privileged scenario wherein the destruction of the metropolis is spectacularized); and the death of the architect himself (as in Peter Greenaway's movie The Belly of an Architect). The article ends with a brief discussion on the very first corpse of architecture: that is, that of the user, removed from the images of the architectural project, as if it could contaminate the purity of the architect's work of art.

The Moot Papers: Faith, Freedom and Society 1938–1947 (review)

Reviewed by: The Moot Papers: Faith, Freedom and Society 1938–1947 Michael Lackey The Moot Papers: Faith, Freedom and Society 1938–1947. Keith Clements, ed. London: T & T Clark, 2010. Pp. x + 752. $295.00 (cloth). Given the radical reassessment of the secularization hypothesis in recent years, The Moot Papers is a timely work that will significantly challenge standard interpretations of prominent intellectuals such as Karl Mannheim, John Middleton Murry, and T. S. Eliot, among others. J. H. Oldham, a former Scottish missionary, organized the group, which met a few times a year between 1938 and 1947, and The Moot Papers mainly consists of the minutes from these meetings. The objective of the group was to re-Christianize the West, but what will strike scholars most are the conversations about the nature and function of Christianity within the modern body politic and the methods and strategies these writers endorsed and deployed in order to achieve their Christianizing end. One central issue was the use of coercion or force in the re-Christianization of society. Moot members believed that it was no longer possible to evangelize the society by simply sharing the good news of Divine Revelation, so they examined alternative strategies. One was the use of Natural Law. For instance, in a 1940 conversation, Eliot notes that Natural Law is “of practical use in a mixed society of Christians and non-Christians” (332). Herbert Arthur Hodges, philosophy professor at the University of Reading, affirms Eliot’s position, for he holds that “many people believe” the truths of Christianity “without being Christians” (336). For example, Hodges mentions “Kant and others [who] have believed in the norms on other grounds [than Divine Revelation] and to reach them the Christian premiss had to be tactically suppressed” (336). Mannheim, author of the groundbreaking book Ideology and Utopia, agrees with Hodges, claiming that “the origin of Natural Law was precisely this—that Christians had to live with pagans, and the direct appeal to Revelation was useless. Natural Law was a supplement” (336). But Eliot makes an important qualification that would prove decisive for the Moot’s Christianizing approach. According to Eliot, “Hodges’ statement was a correct view of Natural Law, as opposed to Kant who maintained a view which made Natural Law a thing which non-Christians had a perfectly good reason for believing in. Consciousness of Natural Law did not exist for the natural man” (336). Since humans are fallen beings, they do not have a natural inclination for the Christian Good, which explains why “Consciousness of Natural Law did not exist for the natural man” and why Kant’s universalist approach to Natural Law is limited and misguided. In essence, Kant’s universal approach to morality fails to take into account the reality and consequences of original sin, and therefore, his model is limited and even flawed. What Eliot is ultimately suggesting through his critique of Kant is that there are two separate and irreconcilable approaches [End Page 959] to Natural Law, the Enlightenment rationalist approach, which assumes the natural goodness of humans, and the orthodox Christian approach, which assumes that humans are fallen beings. Based on this distinction, the Christian model necessitates a certain level of coercion and manipulation in order to lead the ordinary person to the Christian Good, which Ruth Kenyon, a high church Anglican socialist, argues in her essay, “The Idea of the Natural Law.” Before the members of the Moot convened a meeting, they read a number of position papers, and Kenyon’s paper, which is not included in the volume, argues that after “the Fall, not only was his [man’s] natural being disordered, but the supernatural state was lost.”1 Therefore, in a prelapsarian world, there was “no dominium or coercive element; no coercive State.”2 But given humanity’s “disordered” condition “relative to the Fall,” there is a need for a Christian state that “admits a coercive element.”3 That original sin necessitates a certain level of coercion explains the Moot’s discussions about the possibility of forming a totalitarian Christian state. For instance, at the first meeting, Adolf Löwe, lecturer in economics and sociology at Manchester University and author of Has Freedom a...

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: THE FRENCH CASE

I. INTRODUCTION Historically, the decision to establish or forsake a state religion was seldom democratic. It resulted from the political leaders' willingness to consolidate their hold on power and did not reflect the people's attitudes toward a state religion. Even in a democracy like the United States, the separation of Church and State did not result from a popular vote but was derived from the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and subsequently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. France is actually one of the few countries where citizens had a say in the separation between Church and State. In 1905, the democratically elected French representatives adopted a bill that separated religion from the State. The bill abolished the Concordat, which had been instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801 so as to govern the relationship between the French State and the Roman Catholic Church. Under this arrangement, the members of the Catholic clergy were paid by the French State, which in return had a say in their appointment. The 1905 bill ended state subsidies for the Church but also governmental interventions in the appointment of the Church's personnel. The passing of the 1905 bill illustrates the progressive rejection of the Church in French politics. It occurred at a time when France remained an agricultural country, even though a growing share of the population worked in industrial activities. In addition, because primary education had been made compulsory in 1881 for both boys and girls, illiteracy was decreasing. Nevertheless, there remained many disparities between the different French departements. (1) For instance, the share of the French army's conscripts who were illiterate substantially varied between the different departements, from 0.32% in Haute Savoie to 16.89% in Morbihan. In the academic literature, economists have shown that religious laws have consequences on economic growth and human capital, for example, Kuran (2003), Botticini and Eckstein (2005), Hillman (2007), but they still debate the causal relationship between a nation's actual degree of religious observance and economic development. There are indeed two major theories of religiosity: the religion-market model and the secularization hypothesis. The religion-market model, developed by Iannaccone (1991), Iannaccone and Stark (1994), Iannaccone, Finke, and Stark (1994), and Gill (1999) among others, argues that religious participation is mainly supply In other words, the government's intervention, such as the establishment of state religion, is a major determinant of religiosity. However, following Weber (1905), proponents of the secularization hypothesis, such as Chaves (1994) and Bruce (2001), argue that religious participation is demand driven. They consider that economic development, which includes industrialization, an increase in literacy and wealth, and a decrease in fertility rates, entails a decline in religiosity. This secularization process supposedly leads individuals to define themselves as less religious and decreases the influence of religion on social and political institutions. As a matter of fact, McCleary and Barro (2006) find in a study of religiosity in 68 countries that economic development has an overall negative effect on religiosity. Urbanization also makes individuals less observant, but education and the presence of children are positively correlated with religiosity. Still, studies by Finke and Stark (1992), Iannaccone and Stark (1994), and Stark (1999), among others, argue that there is no empirical evidence to support secularization theories. In particular, the secularization hypothesis predicts that the separation between religion and state should become widespread as countries become richer, but Barro and McCleary (2005) cannot find any link between wealth, measured by a country's gross domestic product (GDP), and the current existence of a state religion. …

Is goodness without god good enough? A debate on faith, secularism, and ethics

Is goodness without god good enough? A debate on faith, secularism, and ethics

The sacralization and the secularization of human life a neo‐parsonian perspective on Durkheim's sociology of religion

The sacralization and the secularization of human life a neo‐parsonian perspective on Durkheim's sociology of religion

The College 'Y.' Student Religion in the Era of Secularization

The College 'Y.' Student Religion in the Era of Secularization

EMMET KENNEDY. Secularism and Its Opponents from Augustine to Solzhenitsyn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. Pp. x, 278. $74.95.

EMMET KENNEDY. Secularism and Its Opponents from Augustine to Solzhenitsyn. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. Pp. x, 278. $74.95.

Naturalism, Secularism, and Religion: Habermas's Via Media

Naturalism, Secularism, and Religion: Habermas's Via Media

Secularism and the Limits of Community

Secularism and the Limits of Community

The Folly of Secularism

The Folly of Secularism