Germany and the New Global History of Secularism
Questioning the Postcolonial Genealogy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9856591 |
|---|---|
| Authors | T H Weir (0000-0002-2840-2736, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 6-20 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Germanic Review Literature Culture Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-8890 • E-ISSN: 1930-6962 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00168890.2014.986431 |
| OpenAlex | W2016552666 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 2 |
Secularism has emerged as a central category of twenty-first century political thought that in many ways has replaced the theory of secularization. According to postcolonial scholars, neither the theory nor the practice of secularization was politically neutral. They define secularism as the set of discourses, policies, and constitutional arrangements whereby modern states and liberal elites have sought to unify nations and divide colonial populations. This definition is quite different from the original meaning of secularism, as an immanent scientific worldview linked to anticlericalism. Anthropologist Talal Asad has connected nineteenth-century worldview secularism to twenty-first century political secularism through a genealogical account that stresses continuities of liberal hegemony. This essay challenges this account. It argues that liberal elites did not merely subsume worldview secularism in their drive for state secularization. Using the tools of conceptual history, the essay shows that one reason that “secularization” only achieved its contemporary meaning in Germany after 1945 was that radical freethinkers and other anticlerical secularists had previously resisted liberal hegemony. The essay concludes by offering an agenda for research into the discontinuous history of these two types of secularism
Epistemology · Hegemony · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Secularism · Secularization · Sociology · State (computer science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies
Secularism and Nonreligion
What are we talking about when we talk about the (post)secular? Recentering mutual participation and a commitment to communicability in scholarly discussions of contemporary religions
Standing on the Edges of the New Paradigm
Secularism and Secular People
Power Differences’ and ‘the Power of Difference’
Introduction
Forging ‘worldview’ in modern culture wars
Introduction
When political crises result in secularization
Remembering Marx’s Secularism
The Logic of Sanctuary
Feeling out alternatives within secularity
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |