Journal Articles

Introduction: Odd Ways of Being Secular

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Secularism in the United States finds its most heightened expression in its constitutional arrangements; in this respect Britain falls short but by its own secularist standards—as the following essays display—American politics are saturated by Christian, especially Protestant concepts and sensibilities, which shape the hopes and fears, the ideals and blind spots of American political culture. It is as if two quite different social compacts were at work: in the British case it appears that the religious majority can have state recognition at the highest level but then they must exercise self effacement in relation to the democratic process if not public culture as well. In the United States, it is as if all churches can agree to allow a certain limited area of public life as "religiously neutral" and "beyond religion," the rest of public life is an open field for religion. American secularism, then, is not the depoliticization of religion but the rejection of one political method, namely establishment. American secularism is to be religious by all means but one.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Social Research: An International Quarterly

Call Number

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Publisher

New York : The New School., 2009

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0037783x

Classification

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Edition

Volume 76, Number 4 Winter 2009 Pages: 1169 - 11

Subject(s)

The Religious-Secular Divide

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