The Politics of Secularism

3 units

Secularism is broadly understood as the separation of religion and politics; the West is thought to be secular, the non-West (and especially the Muslim world) decidedly less so. This course asks what exactly secularism is by examining it both as a political doctrine and a practice of government. Some questions we will consider include: What are the conceptual origins of the doctrine of separation of church and state on which most Western liberal democracies are based? What notion of religion is necessary for secular governance? What is the relationship of the secular to particular discourses of citizenship and practices of political rule? What forms of moral and political inclusion and exclusion does secularism enact? To answer these questions, we will consider a series of historical and contemporary case studies, including the effects of colonial rule on religious and political life in South Asia; Jewish emancipation in Germany and France; secularism in France and the United States; and the recent emergence of and responses to Islamic movements in the Middle East and Europe.