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What is the character of secularism in countries that were not pervaded by Christianity, such as China, India, and the nations of the Middle East? To what extent is the secular an imposition of colonial rule? How does secularism comport with local religious cultures in Africa, and how does it work with local forms of power and governance in Latin America? Has modern secularism evolved organically, or is it even necessary, and has it always meant progress?
A vital extension of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age, in which he exhaustively chronicled the emergence of secularism in Latin Christendom, this anthology applies Taylor's findings to secularism's global migration. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Rajeev Bhargava, Akeel Bilgrami, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Sudipta Kaviraj, Claudio Lomnitz, Alfred Stepan, Charles Taylor, and Peter van der Veer each explore the transformation of Western secularism beyond Europe, and the collection closes with Taylor's response to each essay. What began as a modern reaction to—as well as a stubborn extension of—Latin Christendom has become a complex export shaped by the world's religious and political systems. Brilliantly alternating between intellectual and methodological approaches, this volume fosters a greater engagement with the phenomenon across disciplines.
— José Casanova, Georgetown University
Beyond the Secular West is a distinguished and important set of essays that responds to A Secular Age with critical, broad-ranging, and sympathetic intelligence. The contributions hang together coherently despite the various regions and disciplinary orientations that they represent and richly illuminate the complexity of the issue of secularity as a global phenomenon with a long, diverse history.
— Uday Singh Mehta, CUNY Graduate Center
This volume responds to Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. Framed with an introduction and responses by Charles Taylor, the essays explore how Taylor's work applies to cultures beyond Western Latin Christendom.... Highly recommended.
A helpfully expansive critique and reading of A Secular Age.
This volume provides a dynamic and coherent exploration of many crucial issues relevant to our contemporary global moment, which remains fraught with religious, ideological, and political tensions. It is well suited for scholars interested in comparative religion, and those interested in debates about religion, modernity, and secularism as well as dynamics of globalization and colonialism.
A collaborative tour de force unlike any other: the best guide to date to religious imaginaries ‘beyond the West’.
— Piotr H. Kosicki
A much-needed and finely textured contribution to knowledge about the multiple forms of religious/political commitment in the world, but also a call to change perspective. Charles Taylor’s work remains in many ways magisterial, but this book also demonstrates that the ever-shifting ground of the great transformation of Latin Christendom he describes has shrunk considerably, and that we desperately need to take account of other, pre-existing, simultaneous, and ongoing great transformations as well.
— Cecelia Lynch
This collection of essays represents an all-star roster of voices, organized around the question of whether or not the “secular age,” detailed so painstakingly in Charles Taylor’s seminal 2007 work, can travel to or carry lessons for other parts of the world. . .The book is a provocative yet focused contribution to the literature on non-European secularisms that definitely moves debates about the religious/secular binary and its forms and implications on a global scale forward in creative ways.
— Cecelia Lynch
Preface, by Akeel Bilgrami
1. Can Secularism Travel?, by Charles Taylor
2. The Sufi and the State, by Souleymane Bachir Diagne
3. The Individual and Collective Self-Liberation Model of Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
4. Creating Democratically Friendly Twin Tolerations Outside of Latin Christendom: Tunisia, by Alfred Stepan
5. Secularism and the Mexican Revolution, by Claudio Lomnitz
6. Is Confucianism Secular?, by Peter van der Veer
7. Disenchantment Deferred, by Sudipta Kaviraj
8. An Ancient Indian Secular Age?, by Rajeev Bhargava
9. Gandhi's Radicalism: An Interpretation, by Akeel Bilgrami
10. A Secular Age Outside Latin Christendom: Charles Taylor Responds, by
Charles Taylor
List of Contributors
Index