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The Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age

Michael Warner, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, and Craig Calhoun

Secularism / political theory

It is a key collective engagement with Taylor's A Secular Age, advancing political theory's understanding of religion and public life.

Synopsis

A scholarly anthology responding to Charles Taylor, examining what secularism means and how belief and unbelief actually coexist in modern life.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

Secularism is not a single condition but many, shaped by particular histories, so the secular age looks different depending on where you stand.

It dismantles the simple story of religion's retreat, showing that secularity is plural, contested, and entangled with the faiths it claims to supersede.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with Charles Taylor, A Secular Age.

Reading note

Read selectively by contributor; each essay is a distinct response best approached alongside Taylor's framework.

Best paired with

Charles Taylor, A Secular Age

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