Author: Julie E. Cooper
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608132X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Secularism is usually thought to contain the project of self-deification, in which humans attack God’s authority in order to take his place, freed from all constraints. Julie E. Cooper overturns this conception through an incisive analysis of the early modern justifications for secular politics. While she agrees that secularism is a means of empowerment, she argues that we have misunderstood the sources of secular empowerment and the kinds of strength to which it aspires. Contemporary understandings of secularism, Cooper contends, have been shaped by a limited understanding of it as a shift from vulnerability to power. But the works of the foundational thinkers of secularism tell a different story. Analyzing the writings of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Rousseau at the moment of secularity’s inception, she shows that all three understood that acknowledging one’s limitations was a condition of successful self-rule. And while all three invited humans to collectively build and sustain a political world, their invitations did not amount to self-deification. Cooper establishes that secular politics as originally conceived does not require a choice between power and vulnerability. Rather, it challenges us—today as then—to reconcile them both as essential components of our humanity.
Secular Powers
Author: Julie E. Cooper
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608132X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Secularism is usually thought to contain the project of self-deification, in which humans attack God’s authority in order to take his place, freed from all constraints. Julie E. Cooper overturns this conception through an incisive analysis of the early modern justifications for secular politics. While she agrees that secularism is a means of empowerment, she argues that we have misunderstood the sources of secular empowerment and the kinds of strength to which it aspires. Contemporary understandings of secularism, Cooper contends, have been shaped by a limited understanding of it as a shift from vulnerability to power. But the works of the foundational thinkers of secularism tell a different story. Analyzing the writings of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Rousseau at the moment of secularity’s inception, she shows that all three understood that acknowledging one’s limitations was a condition of successful self-rule. And while all three invited humans to collectively build and sustain a political world, their invitations did not amount to self-deification. Cooper establishes that secular politics as originally conceived does not require a choice between power and vulnerability. Rather, it challenges us—today as then—to reconcile them both as essential components of our humanity.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022608132X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Secularism is usually thought to contain the project of self-deification, in which humans attack God’s authority in order to take his place, freed from all constraints. Julie E. Cooper overturns this conception through an incisive analysis of the early modern justifications for secular politics. While she agrees that secularism is a means of empowerment, she argues that we have misunderstood the sources of secular empowerment and the kinds of strength to which it aspires. Contemporary understandings of secularism, Cooper contends, have been shaped by a limited understanding of it as a shift from vulnerability to power. But the works of the foundational thinkers of secularism tell a different story. Analyzing the writings of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Rousseau at the moment of secularity’s inception, she shows that all three understood that acknowledging one’s limitations was a condition of successful self-rule. And while all three invited humans to collectively build and sustain a political world, their invitations did not amount to self-deification. Cooper establishes that secular politics as originally conceived does not require a choice between power and vulnerability. Rather, it challenges us—today as then—to reconcile them both as essential components of our humanity.
Powers of the Secular Modern
Author: David Scott
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804752664
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
This book presents a set of critical engagements by writers from a variety of disciplines with the work of noted anthropologist Talal Asad.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804752664
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
This book presents a set of critical engagements by writers from a variety of disciplines with the work of noted anthropologist Talal Asad.
Secular Power Europe and Islam
Author: Sarah Wolff
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472132539
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
Reconsidering the European Union's secular identity
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472132539
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
Reconsidering the European Union's secular identity
Negotiating Secular and Ecclesiastical Power
Author: Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
How was medieval Europe held together? People of dissimilar occupations and economic interests, living in widely separate parts of western Europe, came to recognise and act upon a common set of cultural beliefs. This framework of shared social customs and values, that is distinctively medieval and European, arose from the interaction between secular and ecclesiastical power, but these developments can no longer be convincingly viewed as arising solely from events such as the Wars of Investiture and the Fourth Lateran Council. The historiography of this study shows that the medieval mental framework was not solely concerned with the great struggles between Rome and lay rulers, but neither can we assume that local communities were islands of cohesion in a wider world of chaos and conflict. The case studies presented demonstrate how texts were used as weapons by ecclesiastical authorities in defining their relationships with lay powers. Other studies here focus upon how land and kinship was used to define the social relations between the laity and the clergy.The concluding section concentrates upon the solution of conflicts.
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
How was medieval Europe held together? People of dissimilar occupations and economic interests, living in widely separate parts of western Europe, came to recognise and act upon a common set of cultural beliefs. This framework of shared social customs and values, that is distinctively medieval and European, arose from the interaction between secular and ecclesiastical power, but these developments can no longer be convincingly viewed as arising solely from events such as the Wars of Investiture and the Fourth Lateran Council. The historiography of this study shows that the medieval mental framework was not solely concerned with the great struggles between Rome and lay rulers, but neither can we assume that local communities were islands of cohesion in a wider world of chaos and conflict. The case studies presented demonstrate how texts were used as weapons by ecclesiastical authorities in defining their relationships with lay powers. Other studies here focus upon how land and kinship was used to define the social relations between the laity and the clergy.The concluding section concentrates upon the solution of conflicts.
Modern Enchantments
Author: Simon During
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674013711
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Magic, During suggests, has helped shape modern culture. Devoted to this deceptively simple proposition, During's work gets at the aesthetic questions at the very heart of the study of culture. How can the most ordinary arts—and by “magic,” During means not the supernatural, but the special effects and conjurings of magic shows—affect people?
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674013711
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Book Description
Magic, During suggests, has helped shape modern culture. Devoted to this deceptively simple proposition, During's work gets at the aesthetic questions at the very heart of the study of culture. How can the most ordinary arts—and by “magic,” During means not the supernatural, but the special effects and conjurings of magic shows—affect people?
Formations of the Secular
Author: Talal Asad
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804783098
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
“A dark but brilliantly original work . . . one of the most important books on religion and the modern in recent years.” —H-Net Reviews Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like?” this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non-European world” and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity. “A difficult if stunningly eloquent book, a response both elusive and forthright to the many shelves of ‘books on terrorism’ which this country’s trade publishers are rushing into print.” —Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature “This wonderfully illuminating book should be read alongside the author’s Genealogies of Religion.” —Religion “One of the most interesting scholars of religious writing today.” —Christian Scholar’s Review “Asad’s brilliant study remains a defining piece of intellectual and scholarly contribution for all of those interested in exploring the religious and the secular in the modern era.” —The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804783098
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
“A dark but brilliantly original work . . . one of the most important books on religion and the modern in recent years.” —H-Net Reviews Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like?” this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non-European world” and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity. “A difficult if stunningly eloquent book, a response both elusive and forthright to the many shelves of ‘books on terrorism’ which this country’s trade publishers are rushing into print.” —Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature “This wonderfully illuminating book should be read alongside the author’s Genealogies of Religion.” —Religion “One of the most interesting scholars of religious writing today.” —Christian Scholar’s Review “Asad’s brilliant study remains a defining piece of intellectual and scholarly contribution for all of those interested in exploring the religious and the secular in the modern era.” —The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences
The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere
Author: Judith Butler
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023152725X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 149
Book Description
The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does or should religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023152725X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 149
Book Description
The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere represents a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does or should religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of "the political" in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.
Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age
Author: Michael Warner
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674072413
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348
Book Description
ÒWhat does it mean to say that we live in a secular age?Ó This apparently simple question opens into the massive, provocative, and complex A Secular Age, where Charles Taylor positions secularism as a defining feature of the modern world, not the mere absence of religion, and casts light on the experience of transcendence that scientistic explanations of the world tend to neglect. In Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, a prominent and varied group of scholars chart the conversations in which A Secular Age intervenes and address wider questions of secularism and secularity. The distinguished contributors include Robert Bellah, Jos Casanova, Nilfer Gle, William E. Connolly, Wendy Brown, Simon During, Colin Jager, Jon Butler, Jonathan Sheehan, Akeel Bilgrami, John Milbank, and Saba Mahmood. Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age succeeds in conveying to readers the complexity of secularism while serving as an invaluable guide to a landmark book.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674072413
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348
Book Description
ÒWhat does it mean to say that we live in a secular age?Ó This apparently simple question opens into the massive, provocative, and complex A Secular Age, where Charles Taylor positions secularism as a defining feature of the modern world, not the mere absence of religion, and casts light on the experience of transcendence that scientistic explanations of the world tend to neglect. In Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, a prominent and varied group of scholars chart the conversations in which A Secular Age intervenes and address wider questions of secularism and secularity. The distinguished contributors include Robert Bellah, Jos Casanova, Nilfer Gle, William E. Connolly, Wendy Brown, Simon During, Colin Jager, Jon Butler, Jonathan Sheehan, Akeel Bilgrami, John Milbank, and Saba Mahmood. Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age succeeds in conveying to readers the complexity of secularism while serving as an invaluable guide to a landmark book.
Secular Power and Sacral Authority in Medieval East-Central Europe
Author: Kosana Jovanović
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789462981669
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This book brings together a team of scholars representing a broad range of interests and new approaches in medieval studies to explore the interactions of secular power and sacral authority in central and southeastern Europe in the period. Contributors present new research on the region's political and legal history, nobility and government institutions, war and diplomacy, literature and literacy, sacred and secular art, archaeological research, heritage studies, and much more.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789462981669
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This book brings together a team of scholars representing a broad range of interests and new approaches in medieval studies to explore the interactions of secular power and sacral authority in central and southeastern Europe in the period. Contributors present new research on the region's political and legal history, nobility and government institutions, war and diplomacy, literature and literacy, sacred and secular art, archaeological research, heritage studies, and much more.
Introduction to Political Theory
Author: Paul Graham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429754000
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399
Book Description
This vibrant and significantly revised new edition is a comprehensive and accessible text for studying political theory in a changing world. Bringing together classic and contemporary political concepts and ideologies into one book, it introduces the major approaches to political issues that have shaped our world, and the ideas that form the currency of political debate. Consistently, it relates political ideas to political realities through effective use of examples and case studies making theory lively, contentious, and relevant. With significant revisions which reflect the latest questions facing political theory in an increasingly international context, key features and updates include: Two brand new chapters on Migration and Freedom of Speech and a significant new section on the radical right; Thought-provoking case studies to bring the theory to life including social media and internet regulation, Brexit and the EU, anti-vaxxer campaigns, surrogacy tourism, and autonomous anarchist zones; A revamped website, including podcasts, to aid study of, and reading around, the subject. Introduction to Political Theory, Fourth Edition is the perfect accompaniment to undergraduate study in political theory, political philosophy, concepts and ideologies, and more broadly to the social sciences and philosophy.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429754000
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399
Book Description
This vibrant and significantly revised new edition is a comprehensive and accessible text for studying political theory in a changing world. Bringing together classic and contemporary political concepts and ideologies into one book, it introduces the major approaches to political issues that have shaped our world, and the ideas that form the currency of political debate. Consistently, it relates political ideas to political realities through effective use of examples and case studies making theory lively, contentious, and relevant. With significant revisions which reflect the latest questions facing political theory in an increasingly international context, key features and updates include: Two brand new chapters on Migration and Freedom of Speech and a significant new section on the radical right; Thought-provoking case studies to bring the theory to life including social media and internet regulation, Brexit and the EU, anti-vaxxer campaigns, surrogacy tourism, and autonomous anarchist zones; A revamped website, including podcasts, to aid study of, and reading around, the subject. Introduction to Political Theory, Fourth Edition is the perfect accompaniment to undergraduate study in political theory, political philosophy, concepts and ideologies, and more broadly to the social sciences and philosophy.