Secularization, Desecularization, and Toleration: Cross-Disciplinary Challenges to a Modern Myth

by Vyacheslav Karpov (Editor), Manfred Svensson (Editor)

Overview

This book challenges the modern myth that tolerance grows as societies become less religious. The myth inseparably links the progress of toleration to the secularization of modern society. This volume scrutinizes this grand narrative theoretically and empirically, and proposes alternative accounts of the varied relationships between diverse interpretations of religion and secularity and multiple secularizations, desecularizations, and forms of toleration. The authors show how both secular and religious orthodoxies inform toleration and persecution, and how secularizations and desecularizations engender repressive or pluralistic regimes. Ultimately, the book offers an agency-focused perspective which links the variation in toleration and persecution to the actors of secularization and desecularization and their cultural programs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030540487
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	10/23/2020
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	333
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vyacheslav Karpov is Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University, USA.

Manfred Svensson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Andes, Chile.

Table of Contents

1. Vyacheslav Karpov and Manfred Svensson. “Secularization, Desecularization, and Toleration: Towards an Agency-Focused Reassessment.- 2. Manfred Svensson. A Dirty Word? The Christian Development of the Traditional Conception of Toleration in Augustine, Aquinas, and John Owen.- 3. Stephen Hirtenstein. “Human Dignity and Divine Chivalry: Rights, Respect and Toleration According to Ibn ‘Arabi.- 4. Andrew Murphy. Politics,’ ‘Religion,’ and the Theory and Practice of Toleration: The Case of William Penn.- 5. Holger Zaborowski. “Religious Freedom and Toleration in Moses Mendelssohn's Jerusalem.- 6. George Harinck. “Abraham Kuyper’s Vision of a Plural Society as a Christian Answer to Secularization and Intolerance.- 7. Steven D. Smith. “The Resurgence of (Immanent) Religion and the Disintegration of the Secularization Hypothesis.- 8. Eduardo Fuentes, To Kill a Calf is Not to Kill a Calf: On the Description of Religious Objections and Toleration.- 9. Jean Meyer, The Conflict between State and Church in Mexico (1925-1938) and La Cristiada (1926-1929).- 10. Carol Troen and Ilan Troen. Theological and Secular Discourses in Validating a Jewish State.- 11. Daniel Philpott. Religious Liberty and the Muslim Question.- 12. Barbara McGraw and James T. Richardson. “Tolerance and Intolerance in the History of Religious Liberty Jurisprudence in the United States and the Implementation of RFRA and RLUIPA.- 13. Fenggang Yang. “Secularization Regimes and Religious Toleration: China’s Multiple Experiments.- 14. Effie Fokas. Messages from the European Court of Human Rights on Religion, Secularism, Tolerance and Pluralism.- 15. Vyacheslav Karpov. Secularization and Persecution: Lessons from Russia, Ukraine, and Beyond.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Working both conceptually and empirically, the chapters in this volume interrogate the connections between secularization, de-secularization and tolerance - relationships that are complex to say the least. Understanding them better requires the clear thinking and careful scrutiny discovered in these pages - a collection to be read, marked and inwardly digested. I recommend it very warmly.” (Grace Davie, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Exeter, UK)

 “Offering compelling interdisciplinary research from across the globe and over time, this volume is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the relationship religious toleration holds with secularization, desecularization and many distinctive political, historical, and social contexts. The research has more than a few surprises.” (Roger Finke, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Religious Studies, and International Affairs, Penn State University, USA)

“For far too long, intellectuals in the west have, following the skeptical Enlightenment tradition, presumed the equation of secularity with tolerance. But that presumption is based more on faith than evidence. This volume opens up the hugely important question of the relationship between religion, secularisms, and tolerance of various sorts, disrupting our simplistic, received verities.” (Christian Smith, author, The Secular Revolution)

Editorial Reviews

The cast of authors gathered in this book is extremely impressive, and the quality of nearly every chapter is outstanding. … the wide variation in topics also makes it such a rich, comparative read. … This book proves that we deeply need such juxtapositions. It succeeds, in a way, not only with its title, but also with its subtitle, which makes the point that cross-disciplinary approaches to myth busting are not just serious but essential.” (Robert J. Joustra, IJRF, International Journal for Religious Freedom, Vol. 15 (1-2), 2022)

From the Publisher