Secularisations and Their Debates: Perspectives on the Return of Religion in the Contemporary West (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures Book 5)

This volume explores timely topics in contemporary political and social debates, including: the new atheisms, the debate between Habermas and the Pope on the fate of modernity, and the impact of new scientific developments on traditional religions. This book collects articles first presented at the Deakin University "World in Crisis" workshop, held November 2010 by leading Australasian philosophers and theologians. It addresses questions raised by the recent, much-touted return to religion, including possible reasons for the return and its practical, political, and intellectual prospects. __Secularisation and Their Debates__ is not afraid to provide answers to such questions as: * Is religion only ever a force of political reaction in modernity, or are there resources in it which progressive, even secular social movements, could engage with or adopt? * Are the new atheisms, or on the opposite side, the new fundamentalisms, really novel phenomena, or has religion only ever been artificially sidelined in the modern Western states? * Has modern liberalism only really been kidding itself about its non-doctrinal neutrality between different faiths, and if so, what should follow? This book will appeal to researchers in the philosophy of religion, social sciences, political philosophy, and anthropology. This volume explores timely topics in contemporary political and social debates, including: the new atheisms, the debate between Habermas and the Pope on the fate of modernity, and the impact of new scientific developments on traditional religions. This book collects articles first presented at the Deakin University "World in Crisis" workshop, held November 2010 by leading Australasian philosophers and theologians. It addresses questions raised by the recent, much-touted return to religion, including possible reasons for the return and its practical, political, and intellectual prospects. This book is not afraid to provide answers to such questions as: * Is religion only ever a force of political reaction in modernity, or are there resources in it which progressive, even secular social movements, could engage with or adopt? * Are the new atheisms, or on the opposite side, the new fundamentalisms, really novel phenomena, or has religion only ever been artificially sidelined in the modern Western states? * Has modern liberalism only really been kidding itself about its non-doctrinal neutrality between different faiths, and if so, what should follow? This book will appeal to researchers in the philosophy of religion, social sciences, political philosophy, and anthropology Front Matter....Pages i-vi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction: Secularization and Its Discontents....Pages 3-19 Disenchantments of Secularism: The West and India....Pages 21-37 Locke, Secularism and the Justice of the Secular Solution: Towards a Self-Reflective Transcending of Secular-Self Understanding....Pages 39-57 Front Matter....Pages 59-59 Marx and the Christian Logic of the Secular State....Pages 61-73 Spirit Matters: Life After Secularism and Religion?....Pages 75-90 Front Matter....Pages 91-91 Counter-Secularism: Parsing the Theological Cure for Our Modern Malady....Pages 93-107 ‘In the Beginning Was ... the Story’? On Secularization, Narrative, and Nominalisms....Pages 109-128 Front Matter....Pages 129-129 Enjoy Your Enlightenment! New Atheism, Fanaticism and the Pleasures of (Other People’s) Illusions....Pages 131-152 Against Fundamentalism: The Silence of the Divine in the Work of Karen Armstrong....Pages 153-170 Secularism Stuck in the End-Times: From Alexandre Kojève to the Recent Messianic Turn....Pages 171-196 Front Matter....Pages 197-197 Charles Taylor’s Search for Transcendence: Mystery, Suffering, Violence....Pages 199-215 Towards Post-Secular Enlightenment....Pages 217-232 Back Matter....Pages 233-235