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Liberal religion
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This article contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (November 2014)
It has been suggested that this article be split into articles titled Unitarian Universalism and religious liberalism, accessible from a disambiguation page. (November 2014)
Liberal religion is a religious tradition which embraces the theological progress of a congregation rather than a single creed, authority, or writing. Because it may draw resources from many traditions, it cannot normally be characterized as Christian, Jewish, or any particular religious faith.
Theologian James Luther Adams defined the "five smooth stones of liberal theology[disambiguation needed]" as:
1.Revelation and truth are not closed, but constantly revealed.
2.All relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not coercion.
3.Affirmation of the moral obligation to direct one's effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.
4.Denial of the immaculate conception of virtue and affirmation of the necessity of social incarnation. Good must be consciously given form and power within history.
5.The resources (divine and human) that are available for achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate (but not necessarily immediate) optimism. There is hope in the ultimate abundance of the Universe.[1]
Unitarian Universalist minister Kimi Riegel defines the religious liberal as such:
"To be a liberal according to my favorite scripture, Merriam-Webster, is be open minded, is to be free from the constraints of dogmatism and authority, is to be generous and to believe in the basic goodness of humankind. Religion is defined as that which binds us back or reconnects us to that which is ultimately important. Thus religious liberals are those that are connected, through generosity and openness, to the most important aspects of life. And therein lies the challenge. If we are open minded and not bound by authority, who or what decides those matters of ultimate importance?"[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Liberal religion in Unitarian Universalism 1.1 Seven Principles and Purposes
2 See also
3 References
Liberal religion in Unitarian Universalism[edit]
Seven Principles and Purposes[edit]
Deliberately without an official creed or dogma (per the principle of freedom of thought), Unitarian Universalists instead typically agree with the principles and purposes suggested by the Unitarian Universalist Association. As with most actions in Unitarian Universalism, these were created in committee, and affirmed democratically by a vote of member congregations, proportional to their membership, taken at an annual General Assembly (a meeting of delegates from member congregations). Adopted in 1960, the full Principles and Purposes are as follows:
"We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
—The Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association[3]
Unitarian Universalists place emphasis on spiritual growth and development. Unitarian Universalism is a creedless religion. The Unitarian Universalist Association affirms seven principles:[4] The official statement of Unitarian Universalist principles describes the "sources" upon which current practice is based:[4]
Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
See also[edit]
Portal icon Religion portal
Emerging church
Ethical Culture
Liberal Christianity
Liberal movements within Islam
Liberation theology
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Progressive Judaism
Progressive Christianity
Religious liberalism
Religious naturalism
Religious Society of Friends
Sea of Faith
Secular theology
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ What is Liberal Religion and Why Should I Care?: A Sermon by Rev. Patrick Price
2.Jump up ^ "What is Liberal Religion?". Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
3.Jump up ^ "The Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association". Unitarian Universalist Association. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Principles. UUA (2010-09-09). Retrieved on 2010-09-29.
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Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist topics
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_religion
Liberal religion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article contains too many or too-lengthy quotations for an encyclopedic entry. Please help improve the article by editing it to take facts from excessively quoted material and rewrite them as sourced original prose. Consider transferring direct quotations to Wikiquote. (November 2014)
It has been suggested that this article be split into articles titled Unitarian Universalism and religious liberalism, accessible from a disambiguation page. (November 2014)
Liberal religion is a religious tradition which embraces the theological progress of a congregation rather than a single creed, authority, or writing. Because it may draw resources from many traditions, it cannot normally be characterized as Christian, Jewish, or any particular religious faith.
Theologian James Luther Adams defined the "five smooth stones of liberal theology[disambiguation needed]" as:
1.Revelation and truth are not closed, but constantly revealed.
2.All relations between persons ought ideally to rest on mutual, free consent and not coercion.
3.Affirmation of the moral obligation to direct one's effort toward the establishment of a just and loving community.
4.Denial of the immaculate conception of virtue and affirmation of the necessity of social incarnation. Good must be consciously given form and power within history.
5.The resources (divine and human) that are available for achievement of meaningful change justify an attitude of ultimate (but not necessarily immediate) optimism. There is hope in the ultimate abundance of the Universe.[1]
Unitarian Universalist minister Kimi Riegel defines the religious liberal as such:
"To be a liberal according to my favorite scripture, Merriam-Webster, is be open minded, is to be free from the constraints of dogmatism and authority, is to be generous and to believe in the basic goodness of humankind. Religion is defined as that which binds us back or reconnects us to that which is ultimately important. Thus religious liberals are those that are connected, through generosity and openness, to the most important aspects of life. And therein lies the challenge. If we are open minded and not bound by authority, who or what decides those matters of ultimate importance?"[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Liberal religion in Unitarian Universalism 1.1 Seven Principles and Purposes
2 See also
3 References
Liberal religion in Unitarian Universalism[edit]
Seven Principles and Purposes[edit]
Deliberately without an official creed or dogma (per the principle of freedom of thought), Unitarian Universalists instead typically agree with the principles and purposes suggested by the Unitarian Universalist Association. As with most actions in Unitarian Universalism, these were created in committee, and affirmed democratically by a vote of member congregations, proportional to their membership, taken at an annual General Assembly (a meeting of delegates from member congregations). Adopted in 1960, the full Principles and Purposes are as follows:
"We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote
The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."
—The Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association[3]
Unitarian Universalists place emphasis on spiritual growth and development. Unitarian Universalism is a creedless religion. The Unitarian Universalist Association affirms seven principles:[4] The official statement of Unitarian Universalist principles describes the "sources" upon which current practice is based:[4]
Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
See also[edit]
Portal icon Religion portal
Emerging church
Ethical Culture
Liberal Christianity
Liberal movements within Islam
Liberation theology
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Progressive Judaism
Progressive Christianity
Religious liberalism
Religious naturalism
Religious Society of Friends
Sea of Faith
Secular theology
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ What is Liberal Religion and Why Should I Care?: A Sermon by Rev. Patrick Price
2.Jump up ^ "What is Liberal Religion?". Northwest Unitarian Universalist Church. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
3.Jump up ^ "The Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association". Unitarian Universalist Association. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Principles. UUA (2010-09-09). Retrieved on 2010-09-29.
[show]
v ·
t ·
e
Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist topics
Stub icon This Unitarian Universalism-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Categories: Unitarian Universalism stubs
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Religious faiths, traditions, and movements
Liberalism
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_religion
Religious liberalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (January 2015)
Religious liberalism is a form of approach to religion which is critical, rationalistic or humanistic.[1] It is an attitude towards one's own religion (as opposed to criticism of religion from a secular position, or criticism of a religion other than one's own) which contrasts with a traditionalist or orthodox approach, and it is directly opposed by trends of religious fundamentalism.
"Liberalism" is here used in the sense of classical liberalism as it developed in the Enlightenment era, which forms the starting point of both religious and political liberalism, but religious liberalism does not necessarily coincide with "liberalism" in its various contemporary meanings in political philosophy. Attempts to show a link between religious liberal and political liberal adherents have proved inconclusive in a 1973 study,[clarification needed][2] Usage of "liberalism" in the context of religious philosophy began to be established in the first part of the 20th century; in 1936, Edward Scribner Ames wrote in his article 'Liberalism in Religion' "The term "liberalism" seems to be developing a religious usage which gives it growing significance… sharply contrasted with fundamentalism… [which describes] a relatively uncritical attitude." [3]
Religious liberalism is ultimately based in the attempt to reconcile pre-modern religious tradition with modernity. This project is, of course, contentious, and is challenged both by traditionalist religionists, who reject the idea that that tenets of modernity should have any impact on religious tradition, and by secularists, who reject the idea that implementation of rationalistic or critical thought leaves any room for religion altogether. Liberal Christianity is an umbrella term for the developments in Christian theology and culture since the Enlightenment since the late 18th century. It is now mostly mainstream within the major Christian denominations in the Western World, but is opposed by a movement of Christian fundamentalism which developed in response to these trends, and also contrasts with conservative forms of Christianity outside of the Western world and the reach of Enlightenment philosophy and modernism, mostly within Eastern Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church in particular has a long tradition of controversy regarding questions of religious liberalism. Cardinal John Henry Newman, for example, was seen as moderately liberal by 19th-century standards because he was critical of papal infallibility, but he was still explicitly opposed to "liberalism in religion" because he argued it would lead to complete relativism.[4] A similar argument was voiced in the 20th century by (Anglican) Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who argued that "theology of the liberal type" amounted to a complete re-invention of Christianity and a rejection of Christianity as understood by its own founders. [5]
Alongside the development of liberal theology in Christianity, German-Jewish religious Reformers began to incorporate critical thought and humanist ideas into Judaism from the early 19th century. This resulted in the creation of various non-Orthodox denominations, from the moderately liberal Conservative Judaism to ultra-liberal Reform Judaism (North America) and Liberal Judaism. The moderate wing of Modern Orthodox Judaism, especially Open Orthodoxy, espouses a similar approach.
While Christianity and Judaism in the western world had to deal with modernity since its emergence in the 18th century, or even since the Renaissance and its consequences of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Islam along with Jewish and Christian traditions in the Middle East was not immediately affected by modernity and Enlightenment thought. Such liberal movements within Islam as there are today are mostly limited to intellectuals active in the western world, with a number of organizations founded in response to the Jihadism of the early 21st century, such as Progressive British Muslims (formed following the 2005 London terrorist attacks, defunct by 2012), British Muslims for Secular Democracy (formed 2006), or Muslims for Progressive Values (formed 2007).
Similarly, eastern religions were not immediately affected by liberalism and Enlightenment thought, and have partly undertaken reform movements only after contact with western philosophy in the 19th or 20th centuries. Thus, Hindu reform movements emerge in British India in the 19th century, and Buddhist modernism (or "New Buddhism") arises in Japan as a reaction to the Meiji Restoration, and is again transformed in the United States from the 1930s, notably giving rise to modern Zen Buddhism.
See also[edit]
Secularism
Post-theism
liberal religion
Liberal Christianity
Post-Christianity
Secular Judaism
Unitarian Universalism
Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590847/theological-liberalism
2.Jump up ^ The Correspondence between Religious Orientation and Socio-Political Liberalism and Conservatism Richard J. Stellway, Sociological Quarterly Vol 14 No3 1973, pp 430-439 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4105689
3.Jump up ^ International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Jul., 1936) (pp. 429-443) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2989282
4.Jump up ^ "Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another…", JH Newman 'Biglietto Speech' http://www.newmanreader.org/works/addresses/file2.html
5.Jump up ^ "All theology of the liberal type involves at some point - and often involves throughout - the claim that the real behavior and purpose and teaching of Christ came very rapidly to be misunderstood and misrepresented by his followers, and has been recovered or exhumed only by modern scholars." Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism, Christian Reflections, 1981, republished in Fern Seed and Elephants, 1998
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_liberalism
Religious liberalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (January 2015)
Religious liberalism is a form of approach to religion which is critical, rationalistic or humanistic.[1] It is an attitude towards one's own religion (as opposed to criticism of religion from a secular position, or criticism of a religion other than one's own) which contrasts with a traditionalist or orthodox approach, and it is directly opposed by trends of religious fundamentalism.
"Liberalism" is here used in the sense of classical liberalism as it developed in the Enlightenment era, which forms the starting point of both religious and political liberalism, but religious liberalism does not necessarily coincide with "liberalism" in its various contemporary meanings in political philosophy. Attempts to show a link between religious liberal and political liberal adherents have proved inconclusive in a 1973 study,[clarification needed][2] Usage of "liberalism" in the context of religious philosophy began to be established in the first part of the 20th century; in 1936, Edward Scribner Ames wrote in his article 'Liberalism in Religion' "The term "liberalism" seems to be developing a religious usage which gives it growing significance… sharply contrasted with fundamentalism… [which describes] a relatively uncritical attitude." [3]
Religious liberalism is ultimately based in the attempt to reconcile pre-modern religious tradition with modernity. This project is, of course, contentious, and is challenged both by traditionalist religionists, who reject the idea that that tenets of modernity should have any impact on religious tradition, and by secularists, who reject the idea that implementation of rationalistic or critical thought leaves any room for religion altogether. Liberal Christianity is an umbrella term for the developments in Christian theology and culture since the Enlightenment since the late 18th century. It is now mostly mainstream within the major Christian denominations in the Western World, but is opposed by a movement of Christian fundamentalism which developed in response to these trends, and also contrasts with conservative forms of Christianity outside of the Western world and the reach of Enlightenment philosophy and modernism, mostly within Eastern Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church in particular has a long tradition of controversy regarding questions of religious liberalism. Cardinal John Henry Newman, for example, was seen as moderately liberal by 19th-century standards because he was critical of papal infallibility, but he was still explicitly opposed to "liberalism in religion" because he argued it would lead to complete relativism.[4] A similar argument was voiced in the 20th century by (Anglican) Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who argued that "theology of the liberal type" amounted to a complete re-invention of Christianity and a rejection of Christianity as understood by its own founders. [5]
Alongside the development of liberal theology in Christianity, German-Jewish religious Reformers began to incorporate critical thought and humanist ideas into Judaism from the early 19th century. This resulted in the creation of various non-Orthodox denominations, from the moderately liberal Conservative Judaism to ultra-liberal Reform Judaism (North America) and Liberal Judaism. The moderate wing of Modern Orthodox Judaism, especially Open Orthodoxy, espouses a similar approach.
While Christianity and Judaism in the western world had to deal with modernity since its emergence in the 18th century, or even since the Renaissance and its consequences of Reformation and Counter-Reformation, Islam along with Jewish and Christian traditions in the Middle East was not immediately affected by modernity and Enlightenment thought. Such liberal movements within Islam as there are today are mostly limited to intellectuals active in the western world, with a number of organizations founded in response to the Jihadism of the early 21st century, such as Progressive British Muslims (formed following the 2005 London terrorist attacks, defunct by 2012), British Muslims for Secular Democracy (formed 2006), or Muslims for Progressive Values (formed 2007).
Similarly, eastern religions were not immediately affected by liberalism and Enlightenment thought, and have partly undertaken reform movements only after contact with western philosophy in the 19th or 20th centuries. Thus, Hindu reform movements emerge in British India in the 19th century, and Buddhist modernism (or "New Buddhism") arises in Japan as a reaction to the Meiji Restoration, and is again transformed in the United States from the 1930s, notably giving rise to modern Zen Buddhism.
See also[edit]
Secularism
Post-theism
liberal religion
Liberal Christianity
Post-Christianity
Secular Judaism
Unitarian Universalism
Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590847/theological-liberalism
2.Jump up ^ The Correspondence between Religious Orientation and Socio-Political Liberalism and Conservatism Richard J. Stellway, Sociological Quarterly Vol 14 No3 1973, pp 430-439 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4105689
3.Jump up ^ International Journal of Ethics, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Jul., 1936) (pp. 429-443) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2989282
4.Jump up ^ "Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another…", JH Newman 'Biglietto Speech' http://www.newmanreader.org/works/addresses/file2.html
5.Jump up ^ "All theology of the liberal type involves at some point - and often involves throughout - the claim that the real behavior and purpose and teaching of Christ came very rapidly to be misunderstood and misrepresented by his followers, and has been recovered or exhumed only by modern scholars." Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism, Christian Reflections, 1981, republished in Fern Seed and Elephants, 1998
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Postchristianity
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Postchristianity[1] is the loss of the primacy of the Christian worldview in political affairs, especially in the Global North where Christianity had previously flourished in favor of alternative worldviews such as secular nationalism.[2] It includes personal world views, ideologies, religious movements or societies that are no longer rooted in the language and assumptions of Christianity, at least explicitly, although they had previously been in an environment of ubiquitous Christianity (i.e. Christendom).
Other scholars have disputed the global decline of Christianity, and instead hypothesized of an evolution of Christianity which allows it to not only survive, but actively expand its influence in contemporary societies.
Contents [hide]
1 The decline of Christianity
2 Alternative perspectives
3 Other uses
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
The decline of Christianity[edit]
Historically, the majority of Christians have lived in Western, White nations, often conceptualized as "European Christian" civilization.[3] Many theorists argue that Christianity was an important ideological branch of Western imperialism, and tied to the history and success of colonialism. As a result, the loss of Christian influence in the West and the development of postcolonialism has led to beliefs of inevitable global decline of Christianity.
A postchristian world is one in which Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion, but that has gradually assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian (and further may not necessarily reflect any world religion's standpoint, or may represent a combination of either several religions or none). Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity's monopoly, if not its followers, in historically Christian societies.[4] Postchristian societies can be found across the global North - for example, though the 2005 Eurobarameter survey indicated that the majority of Europeans hold some form of belief in a higher power, fewer point explicitly to the Christian God.
In his 1961 The Death of God, the French theologian Gabriel Vahanian argued that modern secular culture in most of Western Civilization had lost all sense of the sacred, lacked any sacramental meaning, and disdained any transcendental purpose or sense of providence, bringing him to the conclusion that for the modern mind, "God is dead". Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton of Emory University, drew upon a variety of sources, including the aphorisms of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison, and brought this line of thought to public attention in a short-lived intellectual movement of the mid-to-late-1960s among Protestant theologians and ministerial students. Conservative reaction on the right and social-advocacy efforts on the left blunted its impact, however, and it was quickly overlooked in favor of more ethically-oriented movements such as the Social Gospel and feminist theologies, within mainline Protestantism.
Alternative perspectives[edit]
Other scholars have disputed the global decline of Christianity, and instead hypothesized of an evolution of Christianity which allows it to not only survive, but actively expand its influence in contemporary societies.
Philip Jenkins hypothesized a "Christian Revolution" in the Southern nations, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, where instead of facing decline, Christianity is actively expanding. The relevance of Christian teachings in the global South will allow the Christian population in these areas to continually increase, and together with the shrinking of the Western Christian population, will form a "new Christendom" in which the majority of the world's Christian population can be found in the South.[5]
Charles Taylor, meanwhile, disputes the "God is Dead" thesis by arguing that the practices and understandings of faith changed long before the late 20th century, along with secularism itself. In A Secular Age Taylor argues that being "free from Christendom" has allowed Christianity to endure and express itself in various ways, particularly in Western society; he notes that otherwise secular ideas were, and continue to be, formed in light of some manner of faith. He stresses that "loss of faith" reflects simplistic notions on the nature of secularization, namely the idea of "subtraction." Thus "post-Christian" is, after a fashion, a product of Christianity itself.
Other uses[edit]
Some American Christians (primarily Protestants) also use this term in reference to the evangelism of unchurched individuals who may have grown up in a non-Christian culture where traditional Biblical references may be unfamiliar concepts. This perspective argues that, among previous generations in the United States, such concepts and other artifacts of Christianese would have been common cultural knowledge and that it would not have been necessary to teach this language to adult converts to Christianity. In this sense, post-Christian is not used pejoratively, but is intended to describe the special remediative care that would be needed to introduce new Christians to the nuances of Christian life and practice.[citation needed]
Some groups use the term "post-Christian" as a self-description. Dana McLean Greeley, the first president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, described Unitarian Universalism as postchristian, insofar as Christians no longer considered it Christian, while persons of other religions would likely describe it as Christian, at least historically.[6]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Atheism portal
Apatheism
Christian atheism
Christian existentialism
Postmodernism
Postmodern Christianity
Postmodern Reformation
Post-theism
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ G.C. Oosthuizen. Postchristianity in Africa. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd (December 31, 1968). ISBN 0-903983-05-2
2.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
3.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
4.Jump up ^ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/366263/our-post-christian-society-john-osullivan
5.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
6.Jump up ^ Daniel Harper. "What is a 'post-Christian'?"
References[edit]
Liberal Religion in the Post Christian Era, Edward A. Cahill, 1974
The Post Christian Mind: Exposing Its Destructive Agenda, Harry Blamires, Vine, 1999 (ISBN 1-56955-142-1).
"The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era", Gabriel Vahanian, George Braziller, NY, 1961
Dana MacLean Greeley, 25 Beacon Street, and Other Recollections (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), pp. 11–12.
Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966).
Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton, Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966).
Bernard Murchland, ed., The Meaning of the Death of God (New York: Random House, 1967)
Phillip Jenkins, God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford: University Press, 2005)
Phillip Jenkins, The Christian Revolution in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age(Harvard: Belknap Press, 2007).
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postchristianity
Postchristianity
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Postchristianity[1] is the loss of the primacy of the Christian worldview in political affairs, especially in the Global North where Christianity had previously flourished in favor of alternative worldviews such as secular nationalism.[2] It includes personal world views, ideologies, religious movements or societies that are no longer rooted in the language and assumptions of Christianity, at least explicitly, although they had previously been in an environment of ubiquitous Christianity (i.e. Christendom).
Other scholars have disputed the global decline of Christianity, and instead hypothesized of an evolution of Christianity which allows it to not only survive, but actively expand its influence in contemporary societies.
Contents [hide]
1 The decline of Christianity
2 Alternative perspectives
3 Other uses
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
The decline of Christianity[edit]
Historically, the majority of Christians have lived in Western, White nations, often conceptualized as "European Christian" civilization.[3] Many theorists argue that Christianity was an important ideological branch of Western imperialism, and tied to the history and success of colonialism. As a result, the loss of Christian influence in the West and the development of postcolonialism has led to beliefs of inevitable global decline of Christianity.
A postchristian world is one in which Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion, but that has gradually assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian (and further may not necessarily reflect any world religion's standpoint, or may represent a combination of either several religions or none). Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity's monopoly, if not its followers, in historically Christian societies.[4] Postchristian societies can be found across the global North - for example, though the 2005 Eurobarameter survey indicated that the majority of Europeans hold some form of belief in a higher power, fewer point explicitly to the Christian God.
In his 1961 The Death of God, the French theologian Gabriel Vahanian argued that modern secular culture in most of Western Civilization had lost all sense of the sacred, lacked any sacramental meaning, and disdained any transcendental purpose or sense of providence, bringing him to the conclusion that for the modern mind, "God is dead". Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton of Emory University, drew upon a variety of sources, including the aphorisms of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters and Papers from Prison, and brought this line of thought to public attention in a short-lived intellectual movement of the mid-to-late-1960s among Protestant theologians and ministerial students. Conservative reaction on the right and social-advocacy efforts on the left blunted its impact, however, and it was quickly overlooked in favor of more ethically-oriented movements such as the Social Gospel and feminist theologies, within mainline Protestantism.
Alternative perspectives[edit]
Other scholars have disputed the global decline of Christianity, and instead hypothesized of an evolution of Christianity which allows it to not only survive, but actively expand its influence in contemporary societies.
Philip Jenkins hypothesized a "Christian Revolution" in the Southern nations, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, where instead of facing decline, Christianity is actively expanding. The relevance of Christian teachings in the global South will allow the Christian population in these areas to continually increase, and together with the shrinking of the Western Christian population, will form a "new Christendom" in which the majority of the world's Christian population can be found in the South.[5]
Charles Taylor, meanwhile, disputes the "God is Dead" thesis by arguing that the practices and understandings of faith changed long before the late 20th century, along with secularism itself. In A Secular Age Taylor argues that being "free from Christendom" has allowed Christianity to endure and express itself in various ways, particularly in Western society; he notes that otherwise secular ideas were, and continue to be, formed in light of some manner of faith. He stresses that "loss of faith" reflects simplistic notions on the nature of secularization, namely the idea of "subtraction." Thus "post-Christian" is, after a fashion, a product of Christianity itself.
Other uses[edit]
Some American Christians (primarily Protestants) also use this term in reference to the evangelism of unchurched individuals who may have grown up in a non-Christian culture where traditional Biblical references may be unfamiliar concepts. This perspective argues that, among previous generations in the United States, such concepts and other artifacts of Christianese would have been common cultural knowledge and that it would not have been necessary to teach this language to adult converts to Christianity. In this sense, post-Christian is not used pejoratively, but is intended to describe the special remediative care that would be needed to introduce new Christians to the nuances of Christian life and practice.[citation needed]
Some groups use the term "post-Christian" as a self-description. Dana McLean Greeley, the first president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, described Unitarian Universalism as postchristian, insofar as Christians no longer considered it Christian, while persons of other religions would likely describe it as Christian, at least historically.[6]
See also[edit]
Portal icon Atheism portal
Apatheism
Christian atheism
Christian existentialism
Postmodernism
Postmodern Christianity
Postmodern Reformation
Post-theism
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ G.C. Oosthuizen. Postchristianity in Africa. C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd (December 31, 1968). ISBN 0-903983-05-2
2.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
3.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
4.Jump up ^ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/366263/our-post-christian-society-john-osullivan
5.Jump up ^ Philip Jenkins, from "The Christian Revolution," in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
6.Jump up ^ Daniel Harper. "What is a 'post-Christian'?"
References[edit]
Liberal Religion in the Post Christian Era, Edward A. Cahill, 1974
The Post Christian Mind: Exposing Its Destructive Agenda, Harry Blamires, Vine, 1999 (ISBN 1-56955-142-1).
"The Death of God: The Culture of Our Post-Christian Era", Gabriel Vahanian, George Braziller, NY, 1961
Dana MacLean Greeley, 25 Beacon Street, and Other Recollections (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), pp. 11–12.
Thomas J. J. Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966).
Thomas J. J. Altizer and William Hamilton, Radical Theology and the Death of God (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966).
Bernard Murchland, ed., The Meaning of the Death of God (New York: Random House, 1967)
Phillip Jenkins, God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis (Oxford: University Press, 2005)
Phillip Jenkins, The Christian Revolution in The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age(Harvard: Belknap Press, 2007).
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Late Modern history of Christianity
Postmodernism
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postchristianity
Post-theism
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"αθεοι" (atheoi), Greek for "those without god", as it appears in the Epistle to the Ephesians on the third-century papyrus known as "Papyrus 46"
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Post-theism is a variant of nontheism that proposes that the division of theism vs. atheism is obsolete, that God belongs to a stage of human development now past. Within nontheism, post-theism can be contrasted with antitheism. The term appears in Christian liberal theology and Postchristianity.
Frank Hugh Foster in a 1918 lecture announced that modern culture had arrived at a "post-theistic stage" in which humanity has taken possession of the powers of agency and creativity that had formerly been projected upon God.[1]
Denys Turner argues that Karl Marx did not choose atheism over theism, but rejected the binary "Feuerbachian" choice altogether, a position which by being post-theistic is at the same time necessarily post-atheistic.[2] For example, at one point Marx argued "there should be less trifling with the label 'atheism,'” as he insisted "religion in itself is without content, it owes its being not to heaven but to the earth, and with the abolition of distorted reality, of which it is the theory, it will collapse of itself."[3]
Related ideas include Friedrich Nietzsche's pronouncement that "God is dead", and less pessimistically, the transtheism of Paul Tillich or Pema Chödrön.
Contents [hide]
1 Notable post-theists
2 See also
3 Notes and references
4 External links
Notable post-theists[edit]
Karl Marx
Friedrich Nietzsche
See also[edit]
Deconstruction and religion
Humanism
Postchristianity
Postmodern Christianity
Universalism
Virtuous pagan
Samkhya
Notes and references[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Gary J. Dorrien , The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950 (2003), ISBN 978-0-664-22355-7, p. 177f.
2.Jump up ^ D. Turner, "Religion: Illusions and liberation", in: Terrell Carver (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Marx (1991), ISBN 978-0-521-36694-6, p. 337.
3.Jump up ^ Karl Marx, Letter from Marx to Arnold Ruge In Dresden (1842)
H. J. Adriannse, "After Theism" in: H. A. Krop, Arie L. Molendijk, Hent de Vries (eds.) Post-Theism: Reframing the Judeo-Christian Tradition (2000), ISBN 978-90-429-0853-6.
C. Schwöbel, "After Post-Theism" in: S. Andersen (ed. ) Traditional Theism and its Modern Alternatives (1994), 161-196.
Vincent Brümmer, "The Enlightenment Project and the Human Image of God" in: Hans-Georg Ziebertz (ed.), The Human Image of God, BRILL, 2001, 55-72.
External links[edit]
Post-colonialism and Post-theism by Christopher Bradley (2007)
Entry on "Atheism" at Marxists Internet Archive: Encyclopedia of Marxism
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-theism
Post-theism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
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Irreligion
"αθεοι" (atheoi), Greek for "those without god", as it appears in the Epistle to the Ephesians on the third-century papyrus known as "Papyrus 46"
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Post-theism is a variant of nontheism that proposes that the division of theism vs. atheism is obsolete, that God belongs to a stage of human development now past. Within nontheism, post-theism can be contrasted with antitheism. The term appears in Christian liberal theology and Postchristianity.
Frank Hugh Foster in a 1918 lecture announced that modern culture had arrived at a "post-theistic stage" in which humanity has taken possession of the powers of agency and creativity that had formerly been projected upon God.[1]
Denys Turner argues that Karl Marx did not choose atheism over theism, but rejected the binary "Feuerbachian" choice altogether, a position which by being post-theistic is at the same time necessarily post-atheistic.[2] For example, at one point Marx argued "there should be less trifling with the label 'atheism,'” as he insisted "religion in itself is without content, it owes its being not to heaven but to the earth, and with the abolition of distorted reality, of which it is the theory, it will collapse of itself."[3]
Related ideas include Friedrich Nietzsche's pronouncement that "God is dead", and less pessimistically, the transtheism of Paul Tillich or Pema Chödrön.
Contents [hide]
1 Notable post-theists
2 See also
3 Notes and references
4 External links
Notable post-theists[edit]
Karl Marx
Friedrich Nietzsche
See also[edit]
Deconstruction and religion
Humanism
Postchristianity
Postmodern Christianity
Universalism
Virtuous pagan
Samkhya
Notes and references[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Gary J. Dorrien , The Making of American Liberal Theology: Idealism, Realism, and Modernity, 1900-1950 (2003), ISBN 978-0-664-22355-7, p. 177f.
2.Jump up ^ D. Turner, "Religion: Illusions and liberation", in: Terrell Carver (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Marx (1991), ISBN 978-0-521-36694-6, p. 337.
3.Jump up ^ Karl Marx, Letter from Marx to Arnold Ruge In Dresden (1842)
H. J. Adriannse, "After Theism" in: H. A. Krop, Arie L. Molendijk, Hent de Vries (eds.) Post-Theism: Reframing the Judeo-Christian Tradition (2000), ISBN 978-90-429-0853-6.
C. Schwöbel, "After Post-Theism" in: S. Andersen (ed. ) Traditional Theism and its Modern Alternatives (1994), 161-196.
Vincent Brümmer, "The Enlightenment Project and the Human Image of God" in: Hans-Georg Ziebertz (ed.), The Human Image of God, BRILL, 2001, 55-72.
External links[edit]
Post-colonialism and Post-theism by Christopher Bradley (2007)
Entry on "Atheism" at Marxists Internet Archive: Encyclopedia of Marxism
[hide]
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Theological thought
Abrahamism ·
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Animism ·
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Atheism ·
Deism ·
Dharmism ·
Dualism ·
Esotericism ·
Feminist theology ·
Gnosticism ·
Henotheism ·
Immanence ·
Monism ·
Monolatrism ·
Monotheism ·
Mysticism ·
Neoplatonism ·
New Age ·
New Thought ·
Nondualism ·
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Pantheism ·
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-theism
Secularism
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For other uses, see Secular (disambiguation).
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"αθεοι" (atheoi), Greek for "those without god", as it appears in the Epistle to the Ephesians on the third-century papyrus known as "Papyrus 46"
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Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. One manifestation of secularism is asserting the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, or, in a state declared to be neutral on matters of belief, from the imposition by government of religion or religious practices upon its people.[Notes 1] Another manifestation of secularism is the view that public activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be uninfluenced by religious beliefs and/or practices.[1][Notes 2]
Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Epicurus and Marcus Aurelius; from Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine; and from more recent freethinkers and atheists such as Robert Ingersoll and Bertrand Russell.
The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from traditional religious values (also known as secularization). This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater extent to protect religion and the religious from governmental interference, while secularism on a social level is less prevalent.[2][3] Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons.[4]
Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 State secularism
3 Secular society
4 Secular ethics
5 American interpretation of secularism
6 Organizations
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Overview[edit]
The British writer George Jacob Holyoake (1817–1906), coined the term "secularism."
The Italian law professor Alberico Gentili (1587–1608) has been the first to divide the secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology.
The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851.[5] Although the term was new, the general notions of freethought on which it was based had existed throughout history.
Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."[6]
Barry Kosmin of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture breaks modern secularism into two types: hard and soft secularism. According to Kosmin, "the hard secularist considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate, warranted by neither reason nor experience." However, in the view of soft secularism, "the attainment of absolute truth was impossible and therefore skepticism and tolerance should be the principle and overriding values in the discussion of science and religion."[7]
State secularism[edit]
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In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as the Torah and Sharia law) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities.[8]
Other scholars, such as Jacques Berlinerblau of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, have argued separation of church and state is but one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. What all secular governments, from the democratic to the authoritarian, share is a concern about relations between church and state. Each secular government may find its own unique policy prescriptions for dealing with that concern (separation being but one of those possible policies. French models in which the state carefully monitors and regulates the church being another) [9]
The Hindu varna system had distinct Kshatriya varna (the ruling class) and Brahman varna (the priest, teachers and preachers). This ensured that a Hindu state can never be a theocracy and separateness of state affairs and religious affairs is maintained. All empires following this varna system like Gupta empire, Mauryan empire, and many other Indian empires can be considered secular states because of the documented use of varna system.[10]
Maharaja Ranjeet Singh of the Sikh empire of the first half 19th century successfully established a secular rule in the Punjab. This secular rule allowed members of all races and religions to be respected and to participate without discrimination in Ranjeet Singh darbar and he had Sikh, a Muslim and a Hindu representatives heading the darbar.[11] Ranjit Singh also extensively funded education, religion, and arts of various different religions and languages.[12]
Secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and plays a major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of separation of church and state in the United States and Laïcité in France draw heavily on secularism. Secular states also existed in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages (see Islam and secularism).[13]
Due in part to the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons.[14] In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as the Center for Inquiry.[15][16]
Most major religions accept the primacy of the rules of secular, democratic society but may still seek to influence political decisions or achieve specific privileges or influence through church-state agreements such as a concordat.[citation needed] Many Christians support a secular state, and may acknowledge that the conception has support in Biblical teachings, particularly the statement of Jesus in the Book of Luke: "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.".[citation needed] However, some Christian fundamentalists (notably in the United States) oppose secularism, often claiming that there is a "radical secularist" ideology being adopted in current days and see secularism as a threat to "Christian rights"[17] and national security.[18] The most significant forces of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalist Islam. At the same time, one significant stream of secularism has come from religious minorities who see governmental and political secularism as integral to preserving equal rights.[19]
Some of the well known states that are often considered "constitutionally secular" are USA,[20] France, India,[21] Mexico[22] South Korea, and Turkey although none of these nations have identical forms of governance.
Secular society[edit]
In studies of religion, modern democracies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (beliefs on religion generally are not subject to legal or social sanctions), and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, religious beliefs are widely considered[by whom?] a relevant part of the political discourse in many of these countries.[which?] This contrasts with other Western countries[which?] where religious references are generally considered out-of-place in mainstream politics.
The aspirations of a secular society could characterize a secular society as one which:
1.Refuses to commit itself as a whole to any one view of the nature of the universe and the role of man in it.
2.Is not homogeneous, but is pluralistic.
3.Is tolerant. It widens the sphere of private decision-making.
4.While every society must have some common aims, which implies there must be agreed on methods of problem-solving, and a common framework of law; in a secular society these are as limited as possible.
5.Problem solving is approached rationally, through examination of the facts. While the secular society does not set any overall aim, it helps its members realize their aims.
6.Is a society without any official images. Nor is there a common ideal type of behavior with universal application.
Positive Ideals behind the secular society:
1.Deep respect for individuals and the small groups of which they are a part.
2.Equality of all people.
3.Each person should be helped to realize their particular excellence.
4.Breaking down of the barriers of class and caste.[23]
Modern sociology has, since Max Weber, often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularized societies and with secularization as a sociological or historical process.[24] Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters include Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M. H. Abrams, Peter L. Berger, Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby, among others.
Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; this process is known as secularization.
Secular ethics[edit]
Main articles: Secular ethics and Secular religion
George Holyoake's 1896 publication English Secularism defines secularism as:
Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.[25]
Holyoake held that secularism and secular ethics should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.
Contemporary ethical debate is often described as "secular", with the work of Derek Parfit and Peter Singer, and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, having been described or self-described as explicitly secular or non-religious.[26][27][28][29]
American interpretation of secularism[edit]
It has been argued that the definition of secularism has frequently been misinterpreted.[30][31] In a 2012 Huffington Post article titled Secularism Is Not Atheism, Jacques Berlinerblau, Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, wrote that "Secularism must be the most misunderstood and mangled ism in the American political lexicon. Commentators on the right and the left routinely equate it with Stalinism, Nazism and Socialism, among other dreaded isms. In the United States, of late, another false equation has emerged. That would be the groundless association of secularism with atheism. The religious right has profitably promulgated this misconception at least since the 1970s."[30]
Secularist website Concordat Watch also backed the notion that secularism has at times been mistaken as a word that reflects one's personal religious views, stating that "Some opponents of church-state separation redefine “secularism” as “state neutrality” to allow their group, among others, to get state funding. Others try to discredit it by conflating “secularism” with “atheism”. But it's a political, rather than a religious doctrine and its purpose is to help level the playing field in order to give a better chance for human rights."[31]
Organizations[edit]
Main article: List of secularist organizations
Groups such as the National Secular Society (United Kingdom) and Americans United campaign for secularism are often supported by Humanists. In 2005, the National Secular Society held the inaugural "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony. Its first winner was Maryam Namazie, of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. And of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain[32] which aims to break the taboo that comes with renouncing Islam and to oppose apostasy laws and political Islam.[33]
The Scottish Secular Society is active in Scotland and is currently focused on the role of religion in education. In 2013 it raised a petition at the Scottish Parliament to have the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 changed so that parents will have to make a positive choice to opt in to Religious Observance.
Another secularist organization is the Secular Coalition for America. The Secular Coalition for America lobbies and advocates for separation of church and state as well as the acceptance and inclusion of Secular Americans in American life and public policy. While Secular Coalition for America is linked to many secular humanistic organizations and many secular humanists support it, as with the Secular Society, some non-humanists support it.
Local organizations work to raise the profile of secularism in their communities and tend to include secularists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and humanists under their organizational umbrella.
Student organizations, such as the Toronto Secular Alliance, try to popularize nontheism and secularism on campus. The Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit that organizes and aids such high school and college secular student groups.
In Turkey, the most prominent and active secularist organization is Atatürk Thought Association (ADD), which is credited for organizing the Republic Protests – demonstrations in the four largest cities in Turkey in 2007, where over 2 million people, mostly women, defended their concern in and support of secularist principles introduced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Leicester Secular Society founded in 1851 is the world's oldest secular society.
See also[edit]
Agnosticism
Anticlericalism
Atheism
Antitheism
Civil religion
Clericalism
Concordat
Deism
Freethought
Humanism
Ignosticism
Kemalism
Laïcité
Multiculturalism
Naturalism
Nontheism
Pluralism
Political Catholicism
Political religion
Postsecularism
Pseudo-Secularism
Rationalism
Religious toleration
Secular humanism
Secular Review (journal)
Secular state
Secular Thought (journal)
Secularism in Bangladesh
Secularism in India
Secularism in Iran
Secularism in Turkey
Secularism (South Asia)
Secularity
Secularization
Separation of church and state
Six Arrows of Kemal Atatürk
State atheism
Theocracy
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ See also Separation of church and state and Laïcité.
2.Jump up ^ See also Public reason.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Secularism & Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives". Edited by Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar. Hartford, CT: Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC), 2007.
2.Jump up ^ Yavuz, Hakan M. and John L. Esposio (2003) ‘’Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gulen Movement’’. Syracuse University, pg. xv–xvii. ISBN 0-8156-3040-9
3.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 147 ("But with the Second World War just ahead, secularism of the antireligious type was soon to disappear from mainstream American society, to be replaced by a new complex of ideas that focused on secularizing the state, not on secularizing society.")
4.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 25 ("Together, early protosecularists (Jefferson and Madison) and proto-evangelicals (Backus, Leland, and others) made common cause in the fight for nonestablishment [of religion] – but for starkly different reasons.")
5.Jump up ^ Holyoake, G.J. (1896). The Origin and Nature of Secularism, London: Watts and Co. p.51
6.Jump up ^ Secularism, Catholic Encyclopedia. Newadvent.org
7.Jump up ^ "Kosmin, Barry A. "Hard and soft secularists and hard and soft secularism: An intellectual and research challenge."" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-24.[dead link]
8.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 14 ("[Legal secularists] claim that separating religion from the public, governmental sphere is necessary to ensure full inclusion of all citizens.")
9.Jump up ^ Berlinerblau, Jacques, "How to be Secular," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pg. xvi.
10.Jump up ^ Varna (Hinduism)
11.Jump up ^ K.S. Duggal, Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign, Abhinav Publications (1989) ISBN 81-7017-244-6
12.Jump up ^ Sheikh, Majid. "Destruction of schools as Leitner saw them". Dawn. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Ira M. Lapidus (October 1975). "The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society", International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (4), p. 363-385.
14.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 6–8
15.Jump up ^ Washington Post, November 15, 2006 "Think Tank Will Promote Thinking"
16.Jump up ^ "Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism". Cfidc.org. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
17.Jump up ^ Bob Lewis (2007-05-19). "'Jerry's Kids' Urged to Challenge 'Radical Secularism'". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 2008-03-05.
18.Jump up ^ Rev Jerry Falwell (2001-09-15). "Jerry Falwell – Quotations – Seventh quotation".
19.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 13
20.Jump up ^ Mount, Steve. ""The Constitution of the United States," Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press". Retrieved 22 April 2011.
21.Jump up ^ "Preamble of the Constitution of India". Indiacode.nic.in. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
22.Jump up ^ See article 3 of the 1917 Mexican constitution, and Article 24. See also Schmitt (1962) and Blancarte (2006).
23.Jump up ^ The Idea of a Secular Society, D. L. Munby, London, Oxford University Press, 1963, pp. 14–32.
24.Jump up ^ The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber, London, Routledge Classics, 2001, pp. 123-125.
25.Jump up ^ Holyoake, George J. (1896). English Secularism. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company.
26.Jump up ^ Derek Parfit (1984). Reasons and persons. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824615-3. 0198246153{{inconsistent citations}}
27.Jump up ^ Brian Leiter, "Is "Secular Moral Theory" Really Relatively Young?, Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, June 28, 2009.
28.Jump up ^ Richard Dawkins, "When Religion Steps on Science's Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two Is Not So Tidy", Free Inquiry vol. 18, no. 2.
29.Jump up ^ Solomon, D. (2005). "Christian Bioethics, Secular Bioethics, and the Claim to Cultural Authority". Christian Bioethics 11 (3): 349–359. doi:10.1080/13803600500501571. PMID 16423736. edit
30.^ Jump up to: a b Jacques Berlinerblau (2012-07-28). "Secularism Is Not Atheism". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
31.^ Jump up to: a b "What is secularism?". Concordat Watch. February 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-19.
32.Jump up ^ "Europe: New Groups Unite Those Who Renounce Islam". Radio Free Europe. September 11, 2007.
33.Jump up ^ Casciani, Dominic (21 June 2007). "Ignore Islam, 'ex-Muslims' urge". BBC.
Further reading[edit]
Secular ethicsBerlinerblau, Jacques (2005) "The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously" ISBN 0-521-61824-X
Berlinerblau, Jacques (2012) "How to be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom" ISBN 978-0-547-47334-5
Boyer, Pascal (2002). Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. ISBN 0-465-00696-5
Cliteur, Paul (2010). The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism. ISBN 978-1-4443-3521-7
Dacey, Austin (2008). The Secular Conscience: Why belief belongs in public life. ISBN 978-1-59102-604-4
Holyoake, G.J. (1898). The Origin and Nature of Secularism. London: Watts & Co., Reprint: ISBN 978-1-174-50035-0
Jacoby, Susan (2004). Freethinkers: a history of American secularism. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0-8050-7442-2
Nash, David (1992). Secularism, Art and Freedom. London: Continuum International. ISBN 0-7185-1417-3 (paperback published by Continuum, 1994: ISBN 0-7185-2084-X)
Royle, Edward (1974). Victorian Infidels: the origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791–1866. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0557-4 Online version
Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866–1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0783-6
Asad, Talal (2003). Formations Of The Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4768-7
Taylor, Charles (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02676-6
Secular society
See also the references list in the article on secularization
Berger, Peter L. (1967) The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 1990 edition: ISBN 978-0-385-07305-9.
Chadwick, Owen (1975). The Secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-39829-9
Cox, Harvey (1965). The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective. Edition from 1990: ISBN 978-0-02-031155-3
Kosmin, Barry A. and Ariela Keysar (2007). Secularism and Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives. Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. ISBN 978-0-9794816-0-4; ISBN 0-9794816-0-0
Martin, David (1978). A General Theory of Secularization. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-18960-2
Martin, David (2005). On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5322-6
McLeod, Hugh (2000). Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848–1914. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59748-6
Wilson, Bryan (1969). Religion in Secular Society. London: Penguin.
King, Mike (2007). Secularism. The Hidden Origins of Disbelief. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. ISBN 978-0-227-17245-2
Secular stateAdıvar, Halide Edip (1928). The Turkish Ordeal. The Century Club. ISBN 0-8305-0057-X
Benson, Iain (2004). Considering Secularism in Farrows, Douglas(ed.). Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society McGill-Queens Press. ISBN 0-7735-2812-1
Berlinerblau, Jacques (2012) "How to be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom" ISBN 978-0-547-47334-5
Blancarte, Roberto (2006). Religion, church, and state in contemporary Mexico. in Randall, Laura (ed.). Changing structure of Mexico: political, social, and economic prospects. [Columbia University Seminar]. 2nd. ed. M.E. Sharpe. Chapter 23, pp. 424–437. ISBN 978-0-7656-1405-6.
Cinar, Alev (2006). Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4411-X
Cliteur, Paul (2010). The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism. ISBN 978-1-4443-3521-7
Juergensmeyer, Mark (1994). The New cold war?: religious nationalism confronts the secular state. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08651-1
Schmitt, Karl M. (1962). Catholic adjustment to the secular state: the case of Mexico, 1867–1911. Catholic Historical Review, Vol.48 (2), July, pp. 182–204.
Urban, Greg (2008). The circulation of secularism. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 21, (1–4), December. pp. 17–37.
External links[edit]
Look up secularism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Secularism
Iain Benson"Considering Secularism"
Secularism 101: Religion, Society, and Politics
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism
Secularism
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For other uses, see Secular (disambiguation).
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"αθεοι" (atheoi), Greek for "those without god", as it appears in the Epistle to the Ephesians on the third-century papyrus known as "Papyrus 46"
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Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. One manifestation of secularism is asserting the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, or, in a state declared to be neutral on matters of belief, from the imposition by government of religion or religious practices upon its people.[Notes 1] Another manifestation of secularism is the view that public activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be uninfluenced by religious beliefs and/or practices.[1][Notes 2]
Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Epicurus and Marcus Aurelius; from Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine; and from more recent freethinkers and atheists such as Robert Ingersoll and Bertrand Russell.
The purposes and arguments in support of secularism vary widely. In European laicism, it has been argued that secularism is a movement toward modernization, and away from traditional religious values (also known as secularization). This type of secularism, on a social or philosophical level, has often occurred while maintaining an official state church or other state support of religion. In the United States, some argue that state secularism has served to a greater extent to protect religion and the religious from governmental interference, while secularism on a social level is less prevalent.[2][3] Within countries as well, differing political movements support secularism for varying reasons.[4]
Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 State secularism
3 Secular society
4 Secular ethics
5 American interpretation of secularism
6 Organizations
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 Further reading
11 External links
Overview[edit]
The British writer George Jacob Holyoake (1817–1906), coined the term "secularism."
The Italian law professor Alberico Gentili (1587–1608) has been the first to divide the secularism from canon law and Roman Catholic theology.
The term "secularism" was first used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851.[5] Although the term was new, the general notions of freethought on which it was based had existed throughout history.
Holyoake invented the term "secularism" to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing or criticizing religious belief. An agnostic himself, Holyoake argued that "Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."[6]
Barry Kosmin of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture breaks modern secularism into two types: hard and soft secularism. According to Kosmin, "the hard secularist considers religious propositions to be epistemologically illegitimate, warranted by neither reason nor experience." However, in the view of soft secularism, "the attainment of absolute truth was impossible and therefore skepticism and tolerance should be the principle and overriding values in the discussion of science and religion."[7]
State secularism[edit]
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In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as the Torah and Sharia law) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities.[8]
Other scholars, such as Jacques Berlinerblau of the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, have argued separation of church and state is but one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. What all secular governments, from the democratic to the authoritarian, share is a concern about relations between church and state. Each secular government may find its own unique policy prescriptions for dealing with that concern (separation being but one of those possible policies. French models in which the state carefully monitors and regulates the church being another) [9]
The Hindu varna system had distinct Kshatriya varna (the ruling class) and Brahman varna (the priest, teachers and preachers). This ensured that a Hindu state can never be a theocracy and separateness of state affairs and religious affairs is maintained. All empires following this varna system like Gupta empire, Mauryan empire, and many other Indian empires can be considered secular states because of the documented use of varna system.[10]
Maharaja Ranjeet Singh of the Sikh empire of the first half 19th century successfully established a secular rule in the Punjab. This secular rule allowed members of all races and religions to be respected and to participate without discrimination in Ranjeet Singh darbar and he had Sikh, a Muslim and a Hindu representatives heading the darbar.[11] Ranjit Singh also extensively funded education, religion, and arts of various different religions and languages.[12]
Secularism is often associated with the Age of Enlightenment in Europe and plays a major role in Western society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of separation of church and state in the United States and Laïcité in France draw heavily on secularism. Secular states also existed in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages (see Islam and secularism).[13]
Due in part to the belief in the separation of church and state, secularists tend to prefer that politicians make decisions for secular rather than religious reasons.[14] In this respect, policy decisions pertaining to topics like abortion, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and sex education are prominently focused upon by American secularist organizations such as the Center for Inquiry.[15][16]
Most major religions accept the primacy of the rules of secular, democratic society but may still seek to influence political decisions or achieve specific privileges or influence through church-state agreements such as a concordat.[citation needed] Many Christians support a secular state, and may acknowledge that the conception has support in Biblical teachings, particularly the statement of Jesus in the Book of Luke: "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.".[citation needed] However, some Christian fundamentalists (notably in the United States) oppose secularism, often claiming that there is a "radical secularist" ideology being adopted in current days and see secularism as a threat to "Christian rights"[17] and national security.[18] The most significant forces of religious fundamentalism in the contemporary world are Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalist Islam. At the same time, one significant stream of secularism has come from religious minorities who see governmental and political secularism as integral to preserving equal rights.[19]
Some of the well known states that are often considered "constitutionally secular" are USA,[20] France, India,[21] Mexico[22] South Korea, and Turkey although none of these nations have identical forms of governance.
Secular society[edit]
In studies of religion, modern democracies are generally recognized as secular. This is due to the near-complete freedom of religion (beliefs on religion generally are not subject to legal or social sanctions), and the lack of authority of religious leaders over political decisions. Nevertheless, religious beliefs are widely considered[by whom?] a relevant part of the political discourse in many of these countries.[which?] This contrasts with other Western countries[which?] where religious references are generally considered out-of-place in mainstream politics.
The aspirations of a secular society could characterize a secular society as one which:
1.Refuses to commit itself as a whole to any one view of the nature of the universe and the role of man in it.
2.Is not homogeneous, but is pluralistic.
3.Is tolerant. It widens the sphere of private decision-making.
4.While every society must have some common aims, which implies there must be agreed on methods of problem-solving, and a common framework of law; in a secular society these are as limited as possible.
5.Problem solving is approached rationally, through examination of the facts. While the secular society does not set any overall aim, it helps its members realize their aims.
6.Is a society without any official images. Nor is there a common ideal type of behavior with universal application.
Positive Ideals behind the secular society:
1.Deep respect for individuals and the small groups of which they are a part.
2.Equality of all people.
3.Each person should be helped to realize their particular excellence.
4.Breaking down of the barriers of class and caste.[23]
Modern sociology has, since Max Weber, often been preoccupied with the problem of authority in secularized societies and with secularization as a sociological or historical process.[24] Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters include Carl L. Becker, Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg, M. H. Abrams, Peter L. Berger, Paul Bénichou and D. L. Munby, among others.
Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement; this process is known as secularization.
Secular ethics[edit]
Main articles: Secular ethics and Secular religion
George Holyoake's 1896 publication English Secularism defines secularism as:
Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good.[25]
Holyoake held that secularism and secular ethics should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism. In this he disagreed with Charles Bradlaugh, and the disagreement split the secularist movement between those who argued that anti-religious movements and activism was not necessary or desirable and those who argued that it was.
Contemporary ethical debate is often described as "secular", with the work of Derek Parfit and Peter Singer, and even the whole field of contemporary bioethics, having been described or self-described as explicitly secular or non-religious.[26][27][28][29]
American interpretation of secularism[edit]
It has been argued that the definition of secularism has frequently been misinterpreted.[30][31] In a 2012 Huffington Post article titled Secularism Is Not Atheism, Jacques Berlinerblau, Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, wrote that "Secularism must be the most misunderstood and mangled ism in the American political lexicon. Commentators on the right and the left routinely equate it with Stalinism, Nazism and Socialism, among other dreaded isms. In the United States, of late, another false equation has emerged. That would be the groundless association of secularism with atheism. The religious right has profitably promulgated this misconception at least since the 1970s."[30]
Secularist website Concordat Watch also backed the notion that secularism has at times been mistaken as a word that reflects one's personal religious views, stating that "Some opponents of church-state separation redefine “secularism” as “state neutrality” to allow their group, among others, to get state funding. Others try to discredit it by conflating “secularism” with “atheism”. But it's a political, rather than a religious doctrine and its purpose is to help level the playing field in order to give a better chance for human rights."[31]
Organizations[edit]
Main article: List of secularist organizations
Groups such as the National Secular Society (United Kingdom) and Americans United campaign for secularism are often supported by Humanists. In 2005, the National Secular Society held the inaugural "Secularist of the Year" awards ceremony. Its first winner was Maryam Namazie, of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. And of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain[32] which aims to break the taboo that comes with renouncing Islam and to oppose apostasy laws and political Islam.[33]
The Scottish Secular Society is active in Scotland and is currently focused on the role of religion in education. In 2013 it raised a petition at the Scottish Parliament to have the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 changed so that parents will have to make a positive choice to opt in to Religious Observance.
Another secularist organization is the Secular Coalition for America. The Secular Coalition for America lobbies and advocates for separation of church and state as well as the acceptance and inclusion of Secular Americans in American life and public policy. While Secular Coalition for America is linked to many secular humanistic organizations and many secular humanists support it, as with the Secular Society, some non-humanists support it.
Local organizations work to raise the profile of secularism in their communities and tend to include secularists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and humanists under their organizational umbrella.
Student organizations, such as the Toronto Secular Alliance, try to popularize nontheism and secularism on campus. The Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit that organizes and aids such high school and college secular student groups.
In Turkey, the most prominent and active secularist organization is Atatürk Thought Association (ADD), which is credited for organizing the Republic Protests – demonstrations in the four largest cities in Turkey in 2007, where over 2 million people, mostly women, defended their concern in and support of secularist principles introduced by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Leicester Secular Society founded in 1851 is the world's oldest secular society.
See also[edit]
Agnosticism
Anticlericalism
Atheism
Antitheism
Civil religion
Clericalism
Concordat
Deism
Freethought
Humanism
Ignosticism
Kemalism
Laïcité
Multiculturalism
Naturalism
Nontheism
Pluralism
Political Catholicism
Political religion
Postsecularism
Pseudo-Secularism
Rationalism
Religious toleration
Secular humanism
Secular Review (journal)
Secular state
Secular Thought (journal)
Secularism in Bangladesh
Secularism in India
Secularism in Iran
Secularism in Turkey
Secularism (South Asia)
Secularity
Secularization
Separation of church and state
Six Arrows of Kemal Atatürk
State atheism
Theocracy
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ See also Separation of church and state and Laïcité.
2.Jump up ^ See also Public reason.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Secularism & Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives". Edited by Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar. Hartford, CT: Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture (ISSSC), 2007.
2.Jump up ^ Yavuz, Hakan M. and John L. Esposio (2003) ‘’Turkish Islam and the Secular State: The Gulen Movement’’. Syracuse University, pg. xv–xvii. ISBN 0-8156-3040-9
3.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 147 ("But with the Second World War just ahead, secularism of the antireligious type was soon to disappear from mainstream American society, to be replaced by a new complex of ideas that focused on secularizing the state, not on secularizing society.")
4.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 25 ("Together, early protosecularists (Jefferson and Madison) and proto-evangelicals (Backus, Leland, and others) made common cause in the fight for nonestablishment [of religion] – but for starkly different reasons.")
5.Jump up ^ Holyoake, G.J. (1896). The Origin and Nature of Secularism, London: Watts and Co. p.51
6.Jump up ^ Secularism, Catholic Encyclopedia. Newadvent.org
7.Jump up ^ "Kosmin, Barry A. "Hard and soft secularists and hard and soft secularism: An intellectual and research challenge."" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-03-24.[dead link]
8.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 14 ("[Legal secularists] claim that separating religion from the public, governmental sphere is necessary to ensure full inclusion of all citizens.")
9.Jump up ^ Berlinerblau, Jacques, "How to be Secular," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pg. xvi.
10.Jump up ^ Varna (Hinduism)
11.Jump up ^ K.S. Duggal, Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign, Abhinav Publications (1989) ISBN 81-7017-244-6
12.Jump up ^ Sheikh, Majid. "Destruction of schools as Leitner saw them". Dawn. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
13.Jump up ^ Ira M. Lapidus (October 1975). "The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society", International Journal of Middle East Studies 6 (4), p. 363-385.
14.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 6–8
15.Jump up ^ Washington Post, November 15, 2006 "Think Tank Will Promote Thinking"
16.Jump up ^ "Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism". Cfidc.org. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
17.Jump up ^ Bob Lewis (2007-05-19). "'Jerry's Kids' Urged to Challenge 'Radical Secularism'". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 2008-03-05.
18.Jump up ^ Rev Jerry Falwell (2001-09-15). "Jerry Falwell – Quotations – Seventh quotation".
19.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (2005). Divided by God. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pg. 13
20.Jump up ^ Mount, Steve. ""The Constitution of the United States," Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press". Retrieved 22 April 2011.
21.Jump up ^ "Preamble of the Constitution of India". Indiacode.nic.in. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
22.Jump up ^ See article 3 of the 1917 Mexican constitution, and Article 24. See also Schmitt (1962) and Blancarte (2006).
23.Jump up ^ The Idea of a Secular Society, D. L. Munby, London, Oxford University Press, 1963, pp. 14–32.
24.Jump up ^ The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber, London, Routledge Classics, 2001, pp. 123-125.
25.Jump up ^ Holyoake, George J. (1896). English Secularism. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company.
26.Jump up ^ Derek Parfit (1984). Reasons and persons. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824615-3. 0198246153{{inconsistent citations}}
27.Jump up ^ Brian Leiter, "Is "Secular Moral Theory" Really Relatively Young?, Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, June 28, 2009.
28.Jump up ^ Richard Dawkins, "When Religion Steps on Science's Turf: The Alleged Separation Between the Two Is Not So Tidy", Free Inquiry vol. 18, no. 2.
29.Jump up ^ Solomon, D. (2005). "Christian Bioethics, Secular Bioethics, and the Claim to Cultural Authority". Christian Bioethics 11 (3): 349–359. doi:10.1080/13803600500501571. PMID 16423736. edit
30.^ Jump up to: a b Jacques Berlinerblau (2012-07-28). "Secularism Is Not Atheism". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
31.^ Jump up to: a b "What is secularism?". Concordat Watch. February 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-05-19.
32.Jump up ^ "Europe: New Groups Unite Those Who Renounce Islam". Radio Free Europe. September 11, 2007.
33.Jump up ^ Casciani, Dominic (21 June 2007). "Ignore Islam, 'ex-Muslims' urge". BBC.
Further reading[edit]
Secular ethicsBerlinerblau, Jacques (2005) "The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously" ISBN 0-521-61824-X
Berlinerblau, Jacques (2012) "How to be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom" ISBN 978-0-547-47334-5
Boyer, Pascal (2002). Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. ISBN 0-465-00696-5
Cliteur, Paul (2010). The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism. ISBN 978-1-4443-3521-7
Dacey, Austin (2008). The Secular Conscience: Why belief belongs in public life. ISBN 978-1-59102-604-4
Holyoake, G.J. (1898). The Origin and Nature of Secularism. London: Watts & Co., Reprint: ISBN 978-1-174-50035-0
Jacoby, Susan (2004). Freethinkers: a history of American secularism. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0-8050-7442-2
Nash, David (1992). Secularism, Art and Freedom. London: Continuum International. ISBN 0-7185-1417-3 (paperback published by Continuum, 1994: ISBN 0-7185-2084-X)
Royle, Edward (1974). Victorian Infidels: the origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791–1866. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0557-4 Online version
Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists and Republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866–1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0783-6
Asad, Talal (2003). Formations Of The Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4768-7
Taylor, Charles (2007). A Secular Age. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02676-6
Secular society
See also the references list in the article on secularization
Berger, Peter L. (1967) The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 1990 edition: ISBN 978-0-385-07305-9.
Chadwick, Owen (1975). The Secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-39829-9
Cox, Harvey (1965). The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective. Edition from 1990: ISBN 978-0-02-031155-3
Kosmin, Barry A. and Ariela Keysar (2007). Secularism and Secularity: Contemporary International Perspectives. Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. ISBN 978-0-9794816-0-4; ISBN 0-9794816-0-0
Martin, David (1978). A General Theory of Secularization. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-18960-2
Martin, David (2005). On Secularization: Towards a Revised General Theory. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-5322-6
McLeod, Hugh (2000). Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848–1914. Basingstoke: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-59748-6
Wilson, Bryan (1969). Religion in Secular Society. London: Penguin.
King, Mike (2007). Secularism. The Hidden Origins of Disbelief. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co. ISBN 978-0-227-17245-2
Secular stateAdıvar, Halide Edip (1928). The Turkish Ordeal. The Century Club. ISBN 0-8305-0057-X
Benson, Iain (2004). Considering Secularism in Farrows, Douglas(ed.). Recognizing Religion in a Secular Society McGill-Queens Press. ISBN 0-7735-2812-1
Berlinerblau, Jacques (2012) "How to be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom" ISBN 978-0-547-47334-5
Blancarte, Roberto (2006). Religion, church, and state in contemporary Mexico. in Randall, Laura (ed.). Changing structure of Mexico: political, social, and economic prospects. [Columbia University Seminar]. 2nd. ed. M.E. Sharpe. Chapter 23, pp. 424–437. ISBN 978-0-7656-1405-6.
Cinar, Alev (2006). Modernity, Islam, and Secularism in Turkey: Bodies, Places, and Time. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4411-X
Cliteur, Paul (2010). The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism. ISBN 978-1-4443-3521-7
Juergensmeyer, Mark (1994). The New cold war?: religious nationalism confronts the secular state. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08651-1
Schmitt, Karl M. (1962). Catholic adjustment to the secular state: the case of Mexico, 1867–1911. Catholic Historical Review, Vol.48 (2), July, pp. 182–204.
Urban, Greg (2008). The circulation of secularism. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 21, (1–4), December. pp. 17–37.
External links[edit]
Look up secularism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Secularism
Iain Benson"Considering Secularism"
Secularism 101: Religion, Society, and Politics
SecularSites
SSRC Blog on Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism
Secularization
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Secularization or secularisation is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.[1] The term secularization is also used in the context of the lifting of the monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.[2]
Secularization refers to the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.
Secularization has many levels of meaning, both as a theory and a historical process. Social theorists such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Émile Durkheim, postulated that the modernization of society would include a decline in levels of religiosity. Study of this process seeks to determine the manner in which, or extent to which religious creeds, practices and institutions are losing social significance. Some theorists argue that the secularization of modern civilization partly results from our inability to adapt broad ethical and spiritual needs of mankind to the increasingly fast advance of the physical sciences.[3]
The term also has additional meanings, primarily historical and religious.[4] Applied to church property, historically it refers to the seizure of monastic lands and buildings, such as Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and the later acts during the French Revolution as well as by various anti-clerical European governments during the 18th and 19th centuries, which resulted in the expulsion and suppression of the religious communities which occupied them (see Kulturkampf). Otherwise, secularization involves the abandonment of goods by the Church where it is sold to purchasers after the government seizes the property, which most commonly happens after reasonable negotiations and arrangements are made.
Still another form of Secularization refers to the act of Prince-Bishops or holders of a position in a Monastic or Military Order - holding a combined religious and secular authority under the Catholic Church - who broke away and made themselves into completely secular (typically, Protestant) hereditary rulers. For example, Gotthard von Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order, converted to Lutheranism, secularised (and took to himself) the lands of Semigallia and Courland which he had held on behalf of the order - which enabled him to marry and leave to his descendants the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia.
In Catholic canon law, the term can also denote the permission or authorization given for a member of a religious order to live outside his or her religious community or monastery, either for a fixed or permanent period.[5]
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Definitions
3 Sociological use and differentiation
4 Institutional secularization
5 Current issues in secularization
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
9 Further reading
Background[edit]
External video
John Brooke, Ronald Numbers & Lawrence Principe discuss "Science and Secularization", 2012, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Secularization is sometimes credited both to the cultural shifts in society following the emergence of rationality and the development of science as a substitute for superstition—Max Weber called this process the "disenchantment of the world"—and to the changes made by religious institutions to compensate. At the most basic stages, this begins with a slow transition from oral traditions to a writing culture that diffuses knowledge. This first reduces the authority of clerics as the custodians of revealed knowledge. As the responsibility for education has moved from the family and community to the state, two consequences have arisen:
Collective conscience as defined by Durkheim is diminished
Fragmentation of communal activities leads to religion becoming more a matter of individual choice rather than an observed social obligation.
A major issue in the study of secularization is the extent to which certain trends such as decreased attendance at places of worship indicate a decrease in religiosity or simply a privatization of religious belief, where religious beliefs no longer play a dominant role in public life or in other aspects of decision making.
The issue of secularization is discussed in various religious traditions. The government of Turkey is an often cited[by whom?] example, following the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and foundation of the Turkish republic in 1923. This established popular sovereignty in a secular republican framework, in opposition to a system whose authority is based on religion. As one of many examples of state modernization, this shows secularization and democratization as mutually reinforcing processes[citation needed], relying on a separation of religion and state. In expressly secular states like India, it has been argued[by whom?] that the need was to legislate for toleration and respect between quite different religions, and likewise, the secularization of the West was a response to drastically violent intra-Christian feuds between Catholicism and Protestantism. Some[who?] have therefore argued that Western and Indian secularization is radically different in that it deals with autonomy from religious regulation and control. Considerations of both tolerance and autonomy are relevant to any secular state.[citation needed]
Definitions[edit]
John Somerville (1998) outlined six uses of the term secularization in the scientific literature. The first five are more along the lines of 'definitions' while the sixth is more of a 'clarification of use':[6]
1.When discussing macro social structures, secularization can refer to differentiation: a process in which the various aspects of society, economic, political, legal, and moral, become increasingly specialized and distinct from one another.
2.When discussing individual institutions, secularization can denote the transformation of a religious into a secular institution. Examples would be the evolution of institutions such as Harvard University from a predominantly religious institution into a secular institution (with a divinity school now housing the religious element illustrating differentiation).
3.When discussing activities, secularization refers to the transfer of activities from religious to secular institutions, such as a shift in provision of social services from churches to the government.
4.When discussing mentalities, secularization refers to the transition from ultimate concerns to proximate concerns. E.g., individuals in the West are now more likely to moderate their behavior in response to more immediately applicable consequences rather than out of concern for post-mortem consequences. This is a personal religious decline or movement toward a secular lifestyle.
5.When discussing populations, secularization refers to broad patterns of societal decline in levels of religiosity as opposed to the individual-level secularization of (4) above. This understanding of secularization is also distinct from (1) above in that it refers specifically to religious decline rather than societal differentiation.
6.When discussing religion, secularization can only be used unambiguously to refer to religion in a generic sense. For example, a reference to Christianity is not clear unless one specifies exactly which denominations of Christianity are being discussed.
Abdel Wahab Elmessiri (2002) outlined two meanings of the secularization term:
1.Partial Secularization: which is the common meaning of the word, and expresses "The separation between religion and state".
2.Complete Secularization: this definition is not limited to the partial definition, but exceeds it to "The separation between all (religion, moral, and human) values, and (not just the state) but also to (the human nature in its public and private sides), so that the holiness is removed from the world, and this world is transformed into a usable matter that can be employed for the sake of the strong".
Sociological use and differentiation[edit]
As studied by sociologists, one of the major themes of secularization is that of "differentiation"—i.e., the tendency for areas of life to become more distinct and specialized as a society becomes modernized. European sociology, influenced by anthropology, was interested in the process of change from the so-called primitive societies to increasingly advanced societies. In the United States, the emphasis was initially on change as an aspect of progress, but Talcott Parsons refocused on society as a system immersed in a constant process of increased differentiation, which he saw as a process in which new institutions take over the tasks necessary in a society to guarantee its survival as the original monolithic institutions break up. This is a devolution from single, less differentiated institutions to an increasingly differentiated subset of institutions.[7]
Following Parsons, this concept of differentiation has been widely applied. As phrased by Jose Casanova, this "core and the central thesis of the theory of secularization is the conceptualization of the process of societal modernization as a process of functional differentiation and emancipation of the secular spheres—primarily the state, the economy, and science—from the religious sphere and the concomitant differentiation and specialization of religion within its own newly found religious sphere". Casanova also describes this as the theory of "privatization" of religion, which he partially criticizes.[8] While criticizing certain aspects of the traditional sociological theory of secularization, however, David Martin argues that the concept of social differentiation has been its "most useful element".[9]
Institutional secularization[edit]
For more details on the extensive secularization at the beginning of the 19th century, see German mediatization.
In most Western countries, government, nonprofits, and the private sector have taken over the provision of social welfare[citation needed] but in Germany, secularization has not occurred to the same degree. There are still about 100,000 church-based charitable foundations providing services from preschool education to health care for the elderly[citation needed], making the two major churches the second largest employers after government[citation needed]. This is funded partly by the churches out of their own revenues, with the balance coming from general tax revenue[citation needed].
Critics[who?] argue that by allowing the churches to play such a major role, the state is breaching its duty of neutrality under Article 4 of the Grundgesetz, and they consider it inappropriate for heavy subsidies to be given to the churches. On their part, the churches see this work as a natural part of their Christian mission[citation needed].
Current issues in secularization[edit]
At present, secularization as understood in the West is being debated in the sociology of religion. In his works Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966) and The Genesis of the Copernican World (1975), Hans Blumenberg has rejected the idea of a historical continuity - fundamental the so-called 'theorem of secularization'; the Modern age in his view represents an independent epoch opposed to Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a rehabilitation of human curiosity in reaction to theological absolutism. "Blumenberg targets Löwith's argument that progress is the secularization of Hebrew and Christian beliefs and argues to the contrary that the modern age, including its belief in progress, grew out of a new secular self-affirmation of culture against the Christian tradition."[10] Wolfhart Pannenberg, a student of Löwith, has continued the debate against Blumenberg.[11]
Charles Taylor in "A Secular Age" challenges what he calls 'the subtraction thesis' - that science leads to religion being subtracted from more and more areas of life.
Proponents of "secularization theory" demonstrate widespread declines in the prevalence of religious belief throughout the West, particularly in Europe.[1][12] Some scholars (e.g., Rodney Stark, Peter Berger) have argued that levels of religiosity are not declining, while other scholars (e.g., Mark Chaves, N. J. Demerath) have countered by introducing the idea of neo-secularization, which broadens the definition of secularization to include the decline of religious authority and its ability to influence society.
In other words, rather than using the proportion of irreligious apostates as the sole measure of secularity, neo-secularization argues that individuals increasingly look outside of religion for authoritative positions. Neo-secularizationists would argue that religion has diminishing authority on issues such as birth control, and argue that religion's authority is declining and secularization is taking place even if religious affiliation may not be declining in the United States (a debate still taking place).[citation needed]
Finally, some claim that demographic forces offset the process of secularization, and may do so to such an extent that individuals can consistently drift away from religion even as society becomes more religious. This is especially the case in societies like Israel (with the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionists) where committed religious groups have several times the birth rate of seculars. The religious fertility effect operates to a greater or lesser extent in all countries, and is amplified in the West by religious immigration. For instance, even as native whites became more secular, London, England, has become more religious in the past 25 years as religious immigrants and their descendants have increased their share of the population.[13]
See also[edit]
Laicism
Secular state
Secularism
Interdict
German Mediatization
Sociology of religion
Theory of religious economy
Rational choice theory of religion
The Enlightenment
Suppression of Monasteries
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "The Secularization Debate", chapter 1 (pp. 3-32) of Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald (2004). Sacred and Secular. Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83984-X; ISBN 978-05-2183-984-6.
2.Jump up ^ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/secularization
3.Jump up ^ http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=472
4.Jump up ^ Casanova, Jose (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press, pg. 13. ISBN 0-226-09535-5
5.Jump up ^ Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13677a.htm Retrieved 3/15/07.
6.Jump up ^ Somerville, C. J. "Secular Society Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term Secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (2):249-53. (1998)
7.Jump up ^ Martin, David (2005). On Secularization: Toward a Revised General Theory. Ashgate Publishing Company, p. 20. ("Parsons saw differentiation as the separating out of each social sphere from ecclesiastical control: the state, science, and the market, but also law, welfare, and education etc.")
8.Jump up ^ Casanova, Jose (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press, p. 19. ISBN 0-226-09535-5 (“Only in the 1980s, after the sudden eruption of religion into the public sphere, did it become obvious that differentiation and the loss of societal functions do not necessarily entail 'privatization.'”)
9.Jump up ^ Martin, p. 20.
10.Jump up ^ Buller, Cornelius A. (1996). The Unity of Nature and History in Pannenberg's Theology. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 95. ISBN 0-822-63055-9; ISBN 978-08-2263-055-5.
11.Jump up ^ Pannenberg, Wolfhart (1973). "Christianity as the Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1968)". The Idea of God and Human Freedom, Volume 3. London: Westminster Press. pp. 178–191. ISBN 0-664-20971-8; ISBN 978-06-6420-971-1.
12.Jump up ^ Bruce, Steve. God is Dead: Secularization in the West. (2002)
13.Jump up ^ Kaufmann, Eric. 2011. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. London: Profile Books. Also see www.sneps.net.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Secularization
Definition of Secularization at Garethjmsaunders.co.uk
Secularization Theory: The Course of a Concept
Further reading[edit]
Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy. (1967)
Berger, Peter. The Desecularization of the World. (1999)
Bruce, Steve. Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults
Bruce, Steve. God is Dead: Secularization in the West. (2002)
Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. (1994)
Chaves, M. Secularization As Declining Religious Authority. Social Forces 72(3):749–74. (1994)
Ellul, Jacques. The New Demons.
Gauchet, Marcel. The Disenchantment of the World. (1985/tr. 1997)
Martin, David. A General Theory of Secularization. New York: Harper & Row. (1979).
Sommerville, C. J. "Secular Society Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term Secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (2):249–53. (1998)
Said, E. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin. (1978).
Skolnik, Jonathan and Peter Eli Gordon, eds., New German Critique 94 (2005)Special Issue on Secularization and Disenchantment
Stark, Rodney, Laurence R. Iannaccone, Monica Turci, and Marco Zecchi. How Much Has Europe Been Secularized? Inchiesta 32(136):99–112. (2002)
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press. (2007)
Warrier, Maya. Processes of Secularisation in Contemporary India: Guru Faith in the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission, Modern Asian Studies (2003)
Abdelwahab Elmessiri, Dar Al-Shorok, "The Partial Secularization and The Complete Secularization", "العلمانية الجزئية و العلمانية الشاملة"
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularization
Secularization
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Secularization or secularisation is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious (or irreligious) values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis refers to the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance.[1] The term secularization is also used in the context of the lifting of the monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.[2]
Secularization refers to the historical process in which religion loses social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted. In secularized societies faith lacks cultural authority, and religious organizations have little social power.
Secularization has many levels of meaning, both as a theory and a historical process. Social theorists such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, and Émile Durkheim, postulated that the modernization of society would include a decline in levels of religiosity. Study of this process seeks to determine the manner in which, or extent to which religious creeds, practices and institutions are losing social significance. Some theorists argue that the secularization of modern civilization partly results from our inability to adapt broad ethical and spiritual needs of mankind to the increasingly fast advance of the physical sciences.[3]
The term also has additional meanings, primarily historical and religious.[4] Applied to church property, historically it refers to the seizure of monastic lands and buildings, such as Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in England and the later acts during the French Revolution as well as by various anti-clerical European governments during the 18th and 19th centuries, which resulted in the expulsion and suppression of the religious communities which occupied them (see Kulturkampf). Otherwise, secularization involves the abandonment of goods by the Church where it is sold to purchasers after the government seizes the property, which most commonly happens after reasonable negotiations and arrangements are made.
Still another form of Secularization refers to the act of Prince-Bishops or holders of a position in a Monastic or Military Order - holding a combined religious and secular authority under the Catholic Church - who broke away and made themselves into completely secular (typically, Protestant) hereditary rulers. For example, Gotthard von Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order, converted to Lutheranism, secularised (and took to himself) the lands of Semigallia and Courland which he had held on behalf of the order - which enabled him to marry and leave to his descendants the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia.
In Catholic canon law, the term can also denote the permission or authorization given for a member of a religious order to live outside his or her religious community or monastery, either for a fixed or permanent period.[5]
Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Definitions
3 Sociological use and differentiation
4 Institutional secularization
5 Current issues in secularization
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
9 Further reading
Background[edit]
External video
John Brooke, Ronald Numbers & Lawrence Principe discuss "Science and Secularization", 2012, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Secularization is sometimes credited both to the cultural shifts in society following the emergence of rationality and the development of science as a substitute for superstition—Max Weber called this process the "disenchantment of the world"—and to the changes made by religious institutions to compensate. At the most basic stages, this begins with a slow transition from oral traditions to a writing culture that diffuses knowledge. This first reduces the authority of clerics as the custodians of revealed knowledge. As the responsibility for education has moved from the family and community to the state, two consequences have arisen:
Collective conscience as defined by Durkheim is diminished
Fragmentation of communal activities leads to religion becoming more a matter of individual choice rather than an observed social obligation.
A major issue in the study of secularization is the extent to which certain trends such as decreased attendance at places of worship indicate a decrease in religiosity or simply a privatization of religious belief, where religious beliefs no longer play a dominant role in public life or in other aspects of decision making.
The issue of secularization is discussed in various religious traditions. The government of Turkey is an often cited[by whom?] example, following the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and foundation of the Turkish republic in 1923. This established popular sovereignty in a secular republican framework, in opposition to a system whose authority is based on religion. As one of many examples of state modernization, this shows secularization and democratization as mutually reinforcing processes[citation needed], relying on a separation of religion and state. In expressly secular states like India, it has been argued[by whom?] that the need was to legislate for toleration and respect between quite different religions, and likewise, the secularization of the West was a response to drastically violent intra-Christian feuds between Catholicism and Protestantism. Some[who?] have therefore argued that Western and Indian secularization is radically different in that it deals with autonomy from religious regulation and control. Considerations of both tolerance and autonomy are relevant to any secular state.[citation needed]
Definitions[edit]
John Somerville (1998) outlined six uses of the term secularization in the scientific literature. The first five are more along the lines of 'definitions' while the sixth is more of a 'clarification of use':[6]
1.When discussing macro social structures, secularization can refer to differentiation: a process in which the various aspects of society, economic, political, legal, and moral, become increasingly specialized and distinct from one another.
2.When discussing individual institutions, secularization can denote the transformation of a religious into a secular institution. Examples would be the evolution of institutions such as Harvard University from a predominantly religious institution into a secular institution (with a divinity school now housing the religious element illustrating differentiation).
3.When discussing activities, secularization refers to the transfer of activities from religious to secular institutions, such as a shift in provision of social services from churches to the government.
4.When discussing mentalities, secularization refers to the transition from ultimate concerns to proximate concerns. E.g., individuals in the West are now more likely to moderate their behavior in response to more immediately applicable consequences rather than out of concern for post-mortem consequences. This is a personal religious decline or movement toward a secular lifestyle.
5.When discussing populations, secularization refers to broad patterns of societal decline in levels of religiosity as opposed to the individual-level secularization of (4) above. This understanding of secularization is also distinct from (1) above in that it refers specifically to religious decline rather than societal differentiation.
6.When discussing religion, secularization can only be used unambiguously to refer to religion in a generic sense. For example, a reference to Christianity is not clear unless one specifies exactly which denominations of Christianity are being discussed.
Abdel Wahab Elmessiri (2002) outlined two meanings of the secularization term:
1.Partial Secularization: which is the common meaning of the word, and expresses "The separation between religion and state".
2.Complete Secularization: this definition is not limited to the partial definition, but exceeds it to "The separation between all (religion, moral, and human) values, and (not just the state) but also to (the human nature in its public and private sides), so that the holiness is removed from the world, and this world is transformed into a usable matter that can be employed for the sake of the strong".
Sociological use and differentiation[edit]
As studied by sociologists, one of the major themes of secularization is that of "differentiation"—i.e., the tendency for areas of life to become more distinct and specialized as a society becomes modernized. European sociology, influenced by anthropology, was interested in the process of change from the so-called primitive societies to increasingly advanced societies. In the United States, the emphasis was initially on change as an aspect of progress, but Talcott Parsons refocused on society as a system immersed in a constant process of increased differentiation, which he saw as a process in which new institutions take over the tasks necessary in a society to guarantee its survival as the original monolithic institutions break up. This is a devolution from single, less differentiated institutions to an increasingly differentiated subset of institutions.[7]
Following Parsons, this concept of differentiation has been widely applied. As phrased by Jose Casanova, this "core and the central thesis of the theory of secularization is the conceptualization of the process of societal modernization as a process of functional differentiation and emancipation of the secular spheres—primarily the state, the economy, and science—from the religious sphere and the concomitant differentiation and specialization of religion within its own newly found religious sphere". Casanova also describes this as the theory of "privatization" of religion, which he partially criticizes.[8] While criticizing certain aspects of the traditional sociological theory of secularization, however, David Martin argues that the concept of social differentiation has been its "most useful element".[9]
Institutional secularization[edit]
For more details on the extensive secularization at the beginning of the 19th century, see German mediatization.
In most Western countries, government, nonprofits, and the private sector have taken over the provision of social welfare[citation needed] but in Germany, secularization has not occurred to the same degree. There are still about 100,000 church-based charitable foundations providing services from preschool education to health care for the elderly[citation needed], making the two major churches the second largest employers after government[citation needed]. This is funded partly by the churches out of their own revenues, with the balance coming from general tax revenue[citation needed].
Critics[who?] argue that by allowing the churches to play such a major role, the state is breaching its duty of neutrality under Article 4 of the Grundgesetz, and they consider it inappropriate for heavy subsidies to be given to the churches. On their part, the churches see this work as a natural part of their Christian mission[citation needed].
Current issues in secularization[edit]
At present, secularization as understood in the West is being debated in the sociology of religion. In his works Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966) and The Genesis of the Copernican World (1975), Hans Blumenberg has rejected the idea of a historical continuity - fundamental the so-called 'theorem of secularization'; the Modern age in his view represents an independent epoch opposed to Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a rehabilitation of human curiosity in reaction to theological absolutism. "Blumenberg targets Löwith's argument that progress is the secularization of Hebrew and Christian beliefs and argues to the contrary that the modern age, including its belief in progress, grew out of a new secular self-affirmation of culture against the Christian tradition."[10] Wolfhart Pannenberg, a student of Löwith, has continued the debate against Blumenberg.[11]
Charles Taylor in "A Secular Age" challenges what he calls 'the subtraction thesis' - that science leads to religion being subtracted from more and more areas of life.
Proponents of "secularization theory" demonstrate widespread declines in the prevalence of religious belief throughout the West, particularly in Europe.[1][12] Some scholars (e.g., Rodney Stark, Peter Berger) have argued that levels of religiosity are not declining, while other scholars (e.g., Mark Chaves, N. J. Demerath) have countered by introducing the idea of neo-secularization, which broadens the definition of secularization to include the decline of religious authority and its ability to influence society.
In other words, rather than using the proportion of irreligious apostates as the sole measure of secularity, neo-secularization argues that individuals increasingly look outside of religion for authoritative positions. Neo-secularizationists would argue that religion has diminishing authority on issues such as birth control, and argue that religion's authority is declining and secularization is taking place even if religious affiliation may not be declining in the United States (a debate still taking place).[citation needed]
Finally, some claim that demographic forces offset the process of secularization, and may do so to such an extent that individuals can consistently drift away from religion even as society becomes more religious. This is especially the case in societies like Israel (with the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionists) where committed religious groups have several times the birth rate of seculars. The religious fertility effect operates to a greater or lesser extent in all countries, and is amplified in the West by religious immigration. For instance, even as native whites became more secular, London, England, has become more religious in the past 25 years as religious immigrants and their descendants have increased their share of the population.[13]
See also[edit]
Laicism
Secular state
Secularism
Interdict
German Mediatization
Sociology of religion
Theory of religious economy
Rational choice theory of religion
The Enlightenment
Suppression of Monasteries
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "The Secularization Debate", chapter 1 (pp. 3-32) of Norris, Pippa; Inglehart, Ronald (2004). Sacred and Secular. Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83984-X; ISBN 978-05-2183-984-6.
2.Jump up ^ http://www.thefreedictionary.com/secularization
3.Jump up ^ http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=472
4.Jump up ^ Casanova, Jose (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press, pg. 13. ISBN 0-226-09535-5
5.Jump up ^ Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13677a.htm Retrieved 3/15/07.
6.Jump up ^ Somerville, C. J. "Secular Society Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term Secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (2):249-53. (1998)
7.Jump up ^ Martin, David (2005). On Secularization: Toward a Revised General Theory. Ashgate Publishing Company, p. 20. ("Parsons saw differentiation as the separating out of each social sphere from ecclesiastical control: the state, science, and the market, but also law, welfare, and education etc.")
8.Jump up ^ Casanova, Jose (1994). Public Religions in the Modern World. University of Chicago Press, p. 19. ISBN 0-226-09535-5 (“Only in the 1980s, after the sudden eruption of religion into the public sphere, did it become obvious that differentiation and the loss of societal functions do not necessarily entail 'privatization.'”)
9.Jump up ^ Martin, p. 20.
10.Jump up ^ Buller, Cornelius A. (1996). The Unity of Nature and History in Pannenberg's Theology. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 95. ISBN 0-822-63055-9; ISBN 978-08-2263-055-5.
11.Jump up ^ Pannenberg, Wolfhart (1973). "Christianity as the Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1968)". The Idea of God and Human Freedom, Volume 3. London: Westminster Press. pp. 178–191. ISBN 0-664-20971-8; ISBN 978-06-6420-971-1.
12.Jump up ^ Bruce, Steve. God is Dead: Secularization in the West. (2002)
13.Jump up ^ Kaufmann, Eric. 2011. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. London: Profile Books. Also see www.sneps.net.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Secularization
Definition of Secularization at Garethjmsaunders.co.uk
Secularization Theory: The Course of a Concept
Further reading[edit]
Berger, Peter. The Sacred Canopy. (1967)
Berger, Peter. The Desecularization of the World. (1999)
Bruce, Steve. Religion in the Modern World: From Cathedrals to Cults
Bruce, Steve. God is Dead: Secularization in the West. (2002)
Casanova, Jose. Public Religions in the Modern World. (1994)
Chaves, M. Secularization As Declining Religious Authority. Social Forces 72(3):749–74. (1994)
Ellul, Jacques. The New Demons.
Gauchet, Marcel. The Disenchantment of the World. (1985/tr. 1997)
Martin, David. A General Theory of Secularization. New York: Harper & Row. (1979).
Sommerville, C. J. "Secular Society Religious Population: Our Tacit Rules for Using the Term Secularization. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37 (2):249–53. (1998)
Said, E. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin. (1978).
Skolnik, Jonathan and Peter Eli Gordon, eds., New German Critique 94 (2005)Special Issue on Secularization and Disenchantment
Stark, Rodney, Laurence R. Iannaccone, Monica Turci, and Marco Zecchi. How Much Has Europe Been Secularized? Inchiesta 32(136):99–112. (2002)
Taylor, Charles. A Secular Age. Harvard University Press. (2007)
Warrier, Maya. Processes of Secularisation in Contemporary India: Guru Faith in the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission, Modern Asian Studies (2003)
Abdelwahab Elmessiri, Dar Al-Shorok, "The Partial Secularization and The Complete Secularization", "العلمانية الجزئية و العلمانية الشاملة"
Authority control
GND: 4051238-1
Categories: Cultural studies
Disengagement from religion
Political philosophy
Religion and politics
Sociology of religion
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