Secularity, religion and liberal political philosophy : a critical assessment of the conception and justification of the secular in contemporary academic debate

Abstract

Following decades in which certain standard positions in the social sciences framed the discourse on secularity and religion, recent times have seen the emergence of crucial and critical interventions in this area. The academic debate on the 'post-secular' - carefully distinguishing among and between the related but distinct notions of secularity, secularisation and secularism - challenges much of what was previously taken for granted. This thesis focuses on the contributions of Ju¨rgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, Talal Asad and William Connolly, which it outlines, explains and critically engages on the question of the conception and justification of the secular. On the back on these contributions, it argues that having moved beyond classic negative conceptions of the secular as the simple other of religion - where both are considered fixed, universal categories - it should be positively understood as a normative force, tied to modernity, in its own right - one that is not opposed to religion per se but to that religion which challenges its fundamentals. Further, the secular and religious relate in much more complex ways than the former simply coming to the fore as modernisation leads humanity to mature and shed the latter. As for liberal justifications of secularism, these rest on untenable claims of the secular occupying neutral epistemic and political grounds, which make it uniquely suitable for modern, pluralistic societies, and of religion distinctively being prone to violence and intolerance. This thesis challenges the supposed neutrality of the secular in particular, showing that it is as ideological and normative as any other worldview.

Date of Award	2017
Original language	English