Secularism and cosmopolitanism : critical hypotheses on religion and politics

Bibliographic Information

Secularism and cosmopolitanism : critical hypotheses on religion and politics

Étienne Balibar

(European perspectives)

Columbia University Press, c2018

  • : [pbk.]

Other Title

Saeculum : culture, religion, idéologie

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and secularism-the worldwide and the worldly? While cosmopolitan politics may seem inherently secular, existing forms of secularism risk undermining the universality of cosmopolitanism because they privilege the European tradition over all others and transform particular historical norms into enunciations of truth, valid for all cultures and all epochs. In this book, the noted philosopher Etienne Balibar explores the tensions lurking at this troubled nexus in order to advance a truly democratic and emancipatory cosmopolitanism, which requires a secularization of secularism itself. Balibar argues for the idea of the universal against its particular dominant institutions. He questions the assumptions that underlie popular ideas of secularism and religion and outlines the importance of a new critique for the contemporary world. Balibar holds that conflicts between religious and secular discourses need to be reframed from a point of view that takes into account the cultural hybridization, migration and mobility, and transformation of borders that have reshaped the postcolonial age. Among the topics discussed are the uses and misuses of the category of religion and the religious, the paradoxical genealogy of monotheism, French laicite's identitarian turn, and the implications of the responses to the Charlie Hebdo attacks for an extended definition of free speech. Going beyond circumscribed notions of religion and the public sphere, Secularism and Cosmopolitanism is a profound rethinking of identity and difference that seeks to make room for a renewed political imagination.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction. Critique in the Twenty-First Century: Political Economy Still, Religion Again Part I: Saeculum 1. Circumstances and Objectives 2. Secularism and Cosmopolitanism: An Aporia? 3. Double Binds: Politics of the Veil 4. Cosmo-Politics and Conflicts between Universalities 5. Finishing with Religion? 6. Culture, Religion, or Ideology 7. Religious Revolutions and Anthropological Differences 8. Secularism Secularized: The Vanishing Mediator 9. Envoi Part II: Essays 10. Note on the Origins and Uses of "Monotheism" 11. "God Will Not Remain Silent". Zionism, Messianism, and Nationalism 12. What Future for Laicite? Part III: Statements 13. Three Words for the Dead and the Living (after Charlie Hebdo) 14. On "Freedom of Expression" and the Question of "Blasphemy" 15. Identitarian Laicite Notes Index

by "Nielsen BookData"

Related Books: 1-1 of 1

Details

Page Top