Formations of the secular : Christianity, Islam, modernity

Select an Action

Title:

Formations of the secular : Christianity, Islam, modernity

Author:

Asad, Talal.

ISBN:

9780804747677

9780804747684

Personal Author:

Asad, Talal.

Publication Information:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2003.

Physical Description:

269 p. ; 24 cm.

Series:

Cultural memory in the present

Series Title:

Cultural memory in the present

Contents:

Introduction: Thinking about Secularism -- 1. What Might an Anthropology of Secularism Look Like? -- 2. Thinking about Agency and Pain -- 3. Reflections on Cruelty and Torture -- 4. Redeeming the "Human" Through Human Rights -- 5. Muslims as a "Religious Minority" in Europe -- 6. Secularism, Nation-State, Religion -- 7. Reconfigurations of Law and Ethics in Colonial Egypt.

Subject Term:

Secularism.

Islam and politics.

Christianity and politics.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015747294	291.17 A798F 2003	1	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Opening with the provocative query "what might an anthropology of the secular look like?" this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East.
Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the "strangeness of the non-European world" and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined.
The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity.