The Oxford Handbook of Secularism

by Phil Zuckerman (Editor), John Shook (Editor)

As recent headlines reveal, conflicts and debates around the world increasingly involve secularism. National borders and traditional religions cannot keep people in tidy boxes as political struggles, doctrinal divergences, and demographic trends are sweeping across regions and entire continents. And secularity is increasing in society, with a growing number of people in many regions having no religious affiliation or lacking interest in religion. Simultaneously, there is a resurgence of religious participation in the politics of many countries. How might these diverse phenomena be better understood? Long-reigning theories about the pace of secularization and ideal church-state relations are under invigorated scrutiny by scholars studying secularism with new questions, better data, and fresh perspectives.

The Oxford Handbook of Secularism offers a wide-ranging and in-depth examination of this global conversation, bringing together the views of an international collection of prominent experts in their respective fields. This is the essential volume for comprehending the core issues and methodological approaches to the demographics and sociology of secularity; the history and variety of political secularisms; the comparison of constitutional secularisms across many countries from America to Asia; the key problems now convulsing church-state relations; the intersections of liberalism, multiculturalism, and religion; the latest psychological research into secular lives and lifestyles; and the naturalistic and humanistic worldviews available to nonreligious people.

Genres: Religion

794 pages, Hardcover

Published January 25, 2017

About the author

Philip "Phil" Zuckerman (born June 26, 1969 in Los Angeles, California) is a professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He specializes in the sociology of secularity. He is the author of several books, including Society Without God for which he won ForeWord Magazine's silver book of the year award, and Faith No More.

https://www.pitzer.edu/academics/facu...

Reviews

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this monster of a book. I read it for a review which is forthcoming in the journal Religion, State, and Society. If you are new to the field of secular studies, there is probably no better, certainly no more comprehensive, place to start. But digesting everything here takes critical reading skills too. First, the editors provide neat and useful definitions of secularism, the secular, secularisation, atheism, humanism, etc. in their introduction. Unfortunately, already the next chapter proceeds to destroy that, and it gets worse. The framing suggests a coherent picture, but none really emerges from the individual chapters. Part of the reason for this is, secondly, that many of the chapters are better characterised as primary sources rather than scholarly treatments. There's nothing wrong with that of course, and many intro books provide primary materials, but here they are in no way demarcated from the rest. Finally, there is so much repetition (laicite, anyone?) that it gets a bit boring after a while. But, if you can look past these deficiencies, it's a good reference tome to have on your shelf, whether it's a scholar's shelf, or an interested layperson's.