Beyond Church and State
Democracy, Secularism, and Conversion

Beyond Church and State argues that secularism is a process that transforms the interrelated fields of religion and politics.

Matthew Scherer (Author)

9781107026094, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 29 March 2013

256 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

'This original book contributes to the debate about secularism as an ongoing process that delimits both religious and political life … [It] is an important book marked by profound creativity. Scholars working on secularism in all its disguises should welcome it as an important and imaginative contribution to the ongoing debate about the relationship between religion and politics in a world of deep pluralism.' Lars Tønder, Perspectives on Politics

Secularism is often imagined in Thomas Jefferson's words as 'a wall of separation between Church and State'. This book moves past that standard picture to argue that secularism is a process that reshapes both religion and politics. Borrowing a term from religious traditions, the book goes further to argue that this process should be understood as a process of conversion. Matthew Scherer studies Saint Augustine, John Locke, John Rawls, Henri Bergson and Stanley Cavell to present a more accurate picture of what secularism is, what it does, and how it can be reimagined to be more conducive to genuine democracy.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: beyond the separation of church and state: secularism as conversion
1. The authorized narrative and crystalline structure of conversion in Augustine's Confessions
2. Toleration and conversion in Locke's letters: it is 'above all things necessary to distinguish'
3. The crystalline structure of conversion: Henri Bergson's Two Sources
4. Saint John (Rawls), the miracle of secular reason
5. The wish for a better life: Stanley Cavell's critique of the social contract
Conclusion: from Supernovas into The Deep: secularism as conversion, a conversion of secularism
Index.

Subject Areas: Religious & theocratic ideologies [JPFR], Political science & theory [JPA], Religion & politics [HRAM2]