Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age

“What does it mean to say that we live in a secular age?” This apparently simple question opens into the massive, provocative, and complex A Secular Age, where Charles Taylor positions secularism as a defining feature of the modern world, not the mere absence of religion, and casts light on the experience of transcendence that scientistic explanations of the world tend to neglect.

In Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, a prominent and varied group of scholars chart the conversations in which A Secular Age intervenes and address wider questions of secularism and secularity. The distinguished contributors include Robert Bellah, José Casanova, Nilüfer Göle, William E. Connolly, Wendy Brown, Simon During, Colin Jager, Jon Butler, Jonathan Sheehan, Akeel Bilgrami, John Milbank, and Saba Mahmood.

Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age succeeds in conveying to readers the complexity of secularism while serving as an invaluable guide to a landmark book.

Thought-provoking and tightly argued, this coherent collection of 12 essays engages with the philosophical shift into secularism as described in Taylor's landmark A secular age (Harvard U. Press, 2007), using his book as a departure for detailed examination of historical trends, on the one hand, or in-depth critique of Taylor's arguments and conclusions, on the other. Following a lengthy introduction, the first essay analyzes the philosophical tenets of secularism in Taylor and other thinkers such as Maruyama Masao and Jürgen Habermas. Other essays focus on specific historical eras, describing the concept in works by thinkers that include Hegel and Husserl; the religious and secular in Protestant countries and colonial America; and in the work of 18th-century thinkers in Catholic countries, such as Giambattista Vico. Other chapters look at attitudes and philosophies concerning the secular in the contemporary world, including in non-Christian communities. The volume concludes with an essay on A secular age by Charles Taylor himself. Most of the essays are revised versions of talks given at an April 2008 conference at Yale U. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Warner is Seymour H. Knox Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University. He is the editor of American Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King and Fear of a Queer Planet. He also writes for The Nation, The Advocate, The Village Voice, and other periodicals.Jonathan VanAntwerpen is Director of Communications and Program Director at the Social Science Research Council. He is editor of The Immanent Frame, an SSRC blog on secularism, religion, and the public sphere.Craig Calhoun is Director of the London School of Economics. His most recent book is The Roots of Radicalism: Tradition, the Public Sphere, and Early Nineteenth-Century Social Movements.