The Politics Of Postsecular Religion

Ananda Abeysekara contends that democracy, along with its cherished secular norms, is founded on the idea of a promise deferred to the future. Rooted in democracy's messianic promise is the belief that religious political identity-such as Buddhist, Hindu, Sinhalese, Christian, Muslim, or Tamil can be critiqued, neutralized, improved, and changed, even while remaining inseparable from the genocide of the past. This facile belief, he argues, is precisely what distracts us from challenging the violence inherent in postcolonial political sovereignty. At the same time, we cannot simply dismiss the democratic concept, since it permeates so deeply through our modernist, capitalist, and humanist selves. In The Politics of Postsecular Religion, Abeysekara invites us to reconsider our ethical-political legacies, to look at them not as problems, but as aporias, in the Derridean sense-that is, as contradictions or impasses incapable of resolution. Disciplinary theorizing in religion and politics, he argues, is unable to identify the aporias of our postcolonial modernity. The aporetic legacies, which are like specters that cannot be wished away, demand a new kind of thinking. It is this thinking that Abeysekara calls mourning and un-inheriting. Un-inheriting is a way of meditating on history that both avoids the simple binary of remembering and forgetting and provides an original perspective on heritage, memory, and time. Abeysekara situates aporias in the settings and cultures of the United States, France, England, Sri Lanka, India, and Tibet. In presenting concrete examples of religion in public life, he questions the task of refashioning the aporetic premises of liberalism and secularism. Through close readings of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Butler, and Agamben, as well as Foucault, Asad, Chakrabarty, Balibar, and Zizek, he offers readers a way to think about the futures of postsecular politics that is both dynamic and creative.

This book explores how contemporary approaches to the meaning of time and history follow patterns that are simultaneously political and theological. Even after postsecular critiques of Christianity, religion, and secularity, many influential ways of dividing time and history continue to be formed by providential narratives that mediate between experience and expectation in movements from promise to fulfilment. In response to persistent theological influences within ostensibly secular ways of understanding time and history, Postsecular History revisits and revises the concept of periodization by tracing powerful efforts to divide time into past, present, and future, and by critiquing historical partitions between the Reformation and Enlightenment. Developing a postsecular critique of theopolitical periodization in six chapters, Postsecular History questions how relations of possession, novelty, freedom, and instrumentality implied in the prefix ‘post’ are reproduced in postsecular discourses and the field of political theology.

What has happened to religion in its present manifestations? Containing contributions from distinguished scholars from disciplines, such as: philosophy, political theory, anthropology, classics, and religious studies, this book seeks to address this question.

This book identifies and examines the political activities of selected religious actors, in both domestic and international contexts, in relation to democracy, human rights and civilisational interactions. And it asks why, how and when do selected religious actors seek to influence political outcomes? The book is divided into two parts. Section 1 examines the controversial issue of how, why and when religious actors affect democratisation - that is, the transition to democracy - and democracy itself. These chapters examine the impact of religion on democratisation and human rights, with particular attention to secularisation, Islam, and globalisation. They indicate that numerous religious actors have had major importance in helping determine democratisation outcomes in various countries. Section 2 examines the relationships between religion, human rights and civilisational interactions in the context of post-secular politics and links to conflict, and it explores how these relationships affect political outcomes in both domestic and international contexts. This book will be of great interest to postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students of religion and politics; religion and international relations; democratisation and democracy; and global governance, especially studies of the United Nations. It will also interest practitioners and scholars who work on religion and politics, at a domestic and international level.

This book examines contemporary relations between religion, politics and urban societies from a theoretical perspective. Special attention is paid to those authors (e.g. Habermas, Taylor) who analyze new global constellations in terms of a shift from the secular to the postsecular.

"This collection of original essays by leading academics represents an interdisciplinary intervention in the continuing and ever-transforming discussion of the role of religion and secularism in today's world. Foregrounding the most urgent and compelling questions raised by the place of religion in the social sciences, past and present, The Post-Secular in Question restores religion to a more central place in social scientific thinking about the world, helping to move scholarship 'beyond unbelief.'"--book jacket.

Abeysekara contends that democracy--along with its cherished secular norms--is founded on the idea of a promise deferred to the future. The belief that ethnic-political identities--such as Buddhist, Hindu, Sinhalese, and Tamil--can be critiqued, neutralized, improved, and changed, even if they remain inseparable from their genocidal pasts, is rooted in democracy's messianic promise. Abeysekara compels us to consider our ethical-political legacies not as "problems" but as "aporias" in the Derridean sense--contradictions or impasses that cannot be resolved. Abeysekara locates distinct aporias in our modernity and situates them in the places and cultures of America, France, England, Sri Lanka, India, and Tibet. He presents concrete examples of religion in public life and calls into question the projects of refashioning the aporetic premises of liberalism and secularism.