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AbstractThis article probes into the issue of secularity as a main node of the historic construction of modern power and the modern state in Europe. It builds an interpretative arch ranging from the Spanish Reconquista, stretching through the European Wars of Religion and the resistance to the "Turkish Threat" of the encroaching Ottoman armies, and reaching into the contemporary predicament of the presence of a growing population of Muslim background in the key states of Western Europe, notably those involved in the Reconquista, the resistance to the "Turkish Threat", and in the Wars of Religion. The analysis matches the interpretation of these historical traumata with philosophical and sociological reflections, from Spinoza and Vico to Asad and Casanova. The conclusions point to the inherent ambivalence and arbitrary character of the modern secular distinction between religion and politics. They suggest that the philosophical utopia of secularity is still an open issue for the European states and that the growing presence of Islam in Europe helps give evidence of the limits of the secular arrangements reigning in the continent thus far.

"In Islam and Secularity Nilufer Gole takes on two pressing issues: the transforming relationship between Islam and Western secular modernity and the impact of the Muslim presence in Europe. Gole shows how the visibility of Islamic practice in the European public sphere unsettles narratives of Western secularism. As mutually constitutive, Islam and secularism permeate each other, the effects of which play out in embodied and aesthetic practices and are accompanied by fear, anxiety, and violence. In this timely book, Gole illuminates the recent rethinking of secularism and religion, of modernity and resistance to it, of the public significance of sexuality, and of the shifting terrain of identity in contemporary Europe."--Publisher's description

Religious secularity and Islam have not often been considered in the West as comfortable bedfellows, yet the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 questioned assumptions about the appropriateness of separate spheres for religion and politics. However, within a decade of the revolution, theoretical and intellectual shifts were visible in the Iranian seminaries, and alternative views about the doctrine of velāyat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurists) which twinned religion and politics together, were being discussed. Such shifts transformed the doctrine from one which had a divine mandate to one that in practice emanated from the people. This article focuses upon the ideas of a mid-ranking reformist seminarian, Ahmad Qābel (d. 2012), whose tight adherence to reason resulted in him ultimately rejecting velāyat-e faqih, and calling for a form of religious secularity in which the seminary remained divorced from state structures and institutions. For Qābel, this did not mean the creation of an irreligious society, but the establishment of a more open and pluralist one, in which religious differences could be voiced. Qābel's short essay on velāyat-e faqih is utilised herein to outline the main arguments of those who have refuted the doctrine. Qābel's complete rejection of velāyat-e faqih is important because it went much further than the view of his spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Montazeri, who sought reform of the idea. As such, it demonstrates that within the seminary there is much difference of opinion, although there are very few (such as Qābel) who have the courage to articulate their opposition to the "official" view. Qābel's essay provides a straightforward entry-point into a complex topic, employing the kinds of rationalist argumentation that he learnt within the seminarian environment of Iran.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Public Sphere beyond Religious-Secular Dichotomies -- 2. Secular Modernity in Question -- 3. Religious-Secular Frontiers: State, Public Sphere, and the Self -- 4. Web of Secular Power: Civilization, Space, and Sexuality -- 5. The Gendered Nature of the Public Sphere -- 6. Public Islam: New Visibilities and New Imaginaries -- 7. Public Culture, Art, and Islam: Turkish-Delight in Vienna -- 8. Europe's Trouble with Islam: What Future? -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Challenging the common image of Hume as a thoroughly secular philosopher, I argue that Hume occasionally relied on the design argument to defend the objectivity of values. Hume acknowledged that rejecting design might open the door to aesthetic, ethical, and epistemic relativism. To avoid this prospect, he allowed himself to repurpose the language of providential naturalists like Hutcheson and claim that "nature," rather than God, has attuned our faculties to objective standards of morals, beauty, and truth. Historians of philosophy have treated such passages as merely figurative, as they conflict with fundamental principles in Hume's philosophy. I argue instead, from an intellectual historical perspective, that Hume nonetheless expects the passages to be read literally, since only the literal reading helps his case against relativism. Rather than recasting Hume as a defender of design, however, I argue that his appeals to design were less an integral part of his philosophy than a provisional compromise, a response to intractable tensions in the history of secularism.

This paper examines Ian McEwan's The Children Act as a work of fiction that explores the contemporary issue of secularism. My argument is that the novel's exploration of the interplay between law and feelings demonstrates McEwan's attempt to defy the dichotomous quality commonly attributed to law. By juxtaposing the implementation of law and religious practices, the novel's dramatization of the collision between these two forces shows that emotion and feeling are never absent from the allegedly unsympathetic secular civic institution. The realm of law can offer both sympathy and compassion to people who are subject to it.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction -- ONE } Transcendentalism and the Secular Turn -- TWO } Transcendentalism in the Postwar Years -- THREE } Gender, Reform, and Ridicule -- FOUR } Charles Ives: Sound -- FIVE } Joseph Cornell: Things -- SIX } Truman Nelson: Rage -- SEVEN } Beston, Oliver, Dillard, and Fluid Transcendentalism -- Epilogue -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y

Biographical Note -- Introduction -- 1. Sacramental Realism: The Humble Sublime -- 2. Sacramental Poetry as Memory and Witness: Anna Akhmatova -- 3. Realism as Resistance and Reversal: Langston Hughes -- 4. Humanity Without God: Faith without Illusions: George Orwell -- 5. A Strange Form of Love: Realist Hope and Rebellious Politics: Albert Camus -- 6. Conclusion / Mara Willard and Paul Dafydd Jones

The starting point of this article is the complexity of the current political panorama of religion. In Latin America, religion is present in manifestations of political agents as well as politics are present in religious expressions. Before a diversity of existent models, this article analyzes the Brazilian situation. Religiosity is an indelible characteristic of the Brazilian people. The historic heritage of Catholicism and the growth of Pentecostal Evangelical Churches reveal the laicism of State as an incomplete and fragile process. Civil society presupposes an existence of citizens who are, also, religious. These assumptions raise two fundamental questions: considering that religions are expressions of pluralism of national identities that shape citizenship, how can one give meaning for the presence of religion in politics? How can a religion find its adequate spot in politics without damaging the laicism of State and without secularizing/politicalizing itself? This article contributes to this discussion