Secular Faith - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608990761 ISBN 13: 9781608990764

Publisher: Cascade Books, 2010

Synopsis

Is faith a necessary virtue in the contemporary world? May it be, ormust it be, detached from religious commitment? What do genealogies ofthe secular tell us about faith? Does religion need secular faith?

Secular Faith brings together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on theapparent paradox of "secular faith." Ranging over anthropology,religious studies, political science, history, and literature, fromMuslims in China to Pentecostals in South Africa to a prison chapel inTexas, this collection of essays is as engaging and accessible as it ispenetrating and rigorous.

Communism was once labeled "the godthat failed." Like Christianity, Communism involves faith in asuperhuman endeavor, conversion, myth, discipline, and salvation--and,from the perspective of secular liberalism, both are unjustified andfalse. In recent years, scholars have begun to investigate whethersecularism is itself based on faith in a god that failed, or is failing. Nevertheless, many still embrace such a faith, finding in the spirit of democracy an ethos of eternal renewal. Secular Faith enters andbroadens this conversation, interrogating secular faith in a globalcontext, tapping new theoretical resources, and grappling provocativelywith the tragedies and opportunities of today's profane pantheon ofbeliefs.

"Secular Faith is a quietly provocative work ofintellectual intervention, calling upon scholars of religion,anthropology, literature, and history to engage with the secular not as a diagnosis, but as a set of critical engagements. The editors haveassembled a cohort of essays guided by serious theoretical questions and written with disarming poignancy."
--Kathryn Lofton, Yale University

"Secular Faith is an important book. The essays demonstrate, quite clearly, thecomplexities and nuances of faith talk--secular or otherwise. Lloyd andRatzman should be commended. They have not only deepened our currentconversation about secularism and faith; they have pushed us into newterritory. A rare accomplishment indeed."
--Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Princeton University

"Brimming with historical insight and learned provocation, these original essaysrepresent what criticism might look like after questioning theassumptions of the secularization thesis and its anxious critics.Secular Faith is a wide-ranging and engaging collection that disruptsfamiliar distinctions and guild divisions without succumbing toabstraction or triumphalism. Scholars of literature, anthropology,political theory, history, theology, and religious studies should takenotice."
--Eric Gregory, Princeton University

Vincent Lloyd is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University. He is the author of Black Natural Law (2016).

Elliot A. Ratzman is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College.

About this title

About the Authors

Vincent Lloyd is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University. He is the author if Law and Transcendence (2009). Elliot A. Ratzman is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Temple University.

Elliot A. Ratzman is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Temple University

Edition details

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1608990761
• ISBN 13: 9781608990764
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 270
• Editor: Lloyd Vincent W.