The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse

by Steven D. Smith

Overview

Prominent observers complain that public discourse in America is shallow and unedifying. This debased condition is often attributed to, among other things, the resurgence of religion in public life. Steven Smith argues that this diagnosis has the matter backwards: it is not primarily religion but rather the strictures of secular rationalism that have drained our modern discourse of force and authenticity.

Thus, Rawlsian “public reason” filters appeals to religion or other “comprehensive doctrines” out of public deliberation. But these restrictions have the effect of excluding our deepest normative commitments, virtually assuring that the discourse will be shallow. Furthermore, because we cannot defend our normative positions without resorting to convictions that secular discourse deems inadmissible, we are frequently forced to smuggle in those convictions under the guise of benign notions such as freedom or equality.

Smith suggests that this sort of smuggling is pervasive in modern secular discourse. He shows this by considering a series of controversial, contemporary issues, including the Supreme Court’s assisted-suicide decisions, the “harm principle,” separation of church and state, and freedom of conscience. He concludes by suggesting that it is possible and desirable to free public discourse of the constraints associated with secularism and “public reason.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674050877
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Steven D. Smith is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego and Co-Executive Director of the USD Institute for Law and Religion.

Table of Contents

1. The Way We Talk Now
2. Living and Dying in the “Course of Nature”
3. Trafficking in Harm
4. Disoriented Discourse: The Secular Subversion of Religious Freedom
5. The Heavenly City of the Secular Philosophers
6. Science, Humanity, and Atrocity
7. Opening Up the Cage?

• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Michael J. Perry

Smith's book is insightful, provocative, and wonderfully engaging. The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse challenges conventional academic wisdom and provides a welcome opportunity for others to reexamine their own positions
— Michael J. Perry, author of The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy

Richard W. Garnett

This book presses us to look harder at closely held beliefs and to question deeply rooted premises and commitments with which we are perhaps too comfortable.

— Richard W. Garnett, Notre Dame Law School

Editorial Reviews

Smith's book is insightful, provocative, and wonderfully engaging. The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse challenges conventional academic wisdom and provides a welcome opportunity for others to re-examine their own positions.

Michael J. Perry

This book presses us to look harder at closely held beliefs and to question deeply rooted premises and commitments with which we are perhaps too comfortable.

Richard W. Garnett