The modern is not secular: Mapping the idea of secularism in theworks of Steve Bruce, Charles Taylor, and Talal Asad

Abstract

This chapter traces the historical and philosophical development of secularism and focuses on the limits of the relationship between secularization and secularism. For this reason, it compares the presentation of secularism in the pioneering works of Steve Bruce, Charles Taylor, and Talal Asad. This comparison has been built upon word clouds generated from their books. A conceptual discussion supported by these word clouds reveals that the long history of human domination over other humans and non-humans has produced various projects that have always aimed at interfering with and re-structuring the other. Therefore, both human and non-human others have not been allowed to live their century, keeping Taylor’s interpretation of secular in mind. Eventually, although this chapter acknowledges that some macro-level trends have strengthened the sociological paradigm of secularization, other micro-level trends have challenged this paradigm by indicating that modern societies are secularized but not secular, as non-secular individuals govern most modern structures.