Is Critique Secular?: Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech (The Townsend Papers in the Humanties)

in This Volume, Four Leading Thinkers Of Our Times Confront The Paradoxes And Dilemmas Attending The Supposed Stand-off Between Islam And Liberal Democratic Values. Taking The Controversial Danish Cartoons Of Mohammad As A Point Of Departure, Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, And Saba Mahmood Inquire Into The Evaluative Frameworks At Stake In Understanding The Conflicts Between Blasphemy And Free Speech, Between Religious Taboos And Freedoms Of Thought And Expression, And Between Secular And Religious World Views. Is The Language Of The Law An Adequate Mechanism For The Adjudication Of Such Conflicts? What Other Modes Of Discourse Are Available For The Navigation Of Such Differences In Multicultural And Multi-religious Societies? What Is The Role Of Critique In Such An Enterprise? These Are Among The Pressing Questions This Volume Addresses. "In this volume, four leading thinkers of our times confront the paradoxes and dilemmas attending the supposed stand-off between Islam and liberal democratic values. Taking the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammad as a point of departure, Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood inquire into the evaluative frameworks at stake in understanding the conflicts between blasphemy and free speech, between religious taboos and freedoms of thought and expression, and between secular and religious world views. Is the language of the law an adequate mechanism for the adjudication of such conflicts? What other modes of discourse are available for the navigation of such differences in multicultural and multi-religious societies? What is the role of critique in such an enterprise? These are among the pressing questions this volume addresses." -- BOOK PUBLISHER WEBSITE Copyright......Page 5 Table of Contents......Page 6 Brown, Introduction......Page 8 Asad, Free Speech, Blasphemy, and Secular Criticism......Page 21 Mahmood, Religious Reason and Secular Affect:An Incommensurable Divide?......Page 65 Butler, The Sensibility of Critique:Response to Asad and Mahmood......Page 102 Asad, Reply to Judith Butler......Page 138 Mahmood, Reply to Judith Butler......Page 147 Contributors......Page 156 Introduction / Wendy Brown Free speech, blasphemy, and secular criticism / Talal Asad Religious reason and secular affect : an incommensurable divide? / Saba Mahmood The sensibility of critique : response to Asad and Mahmood / Judith Butler Reply to Judith Butler / Talal Asad Response to Judith Butler / Saba Mahmood. Taking the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammad as a point of departure, this title inquires into the evaluative frameworks at stake in understanding the conflicts between blasphemy and free speech, between religious taboos and freedoms of thought and expression, and between secular and religious world views.