Four Views of the Citadel: The Consequential Distinction between Secularity and Secularism
Recommended Citation
Brett G. Scharffs, Four Views of the Citadel: The Consequential Distinction between Secularity and Secularism, 6 Rᴇʟɪɢɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ Hᴜᴍ. Rᴛs.: Aɴ Iɴᴛ’ʟ J. 109 (2011).
Keywords
religion, secularism, secularity, fundamentalism, religious freedom, laicite, pluralism
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In this article I want to suggest that there is an important, perhaps critical distinction between secularity and secularism -- in particlular, that one concept is a fundamental component of liberal pluralism and a bastion against religious extremism, and that the other is a misguided, even dangerous, ideology that may degenerate into its own dystopian fundamentalism. As a means of advancing this suggestion, I propose to view the distinction between secularity and secularism from four vantage points, each of which I will call a view of the citadel.
Relation
6 Religion and Hum. Rts.: An Int’l J.
Publication Title
Religion and Human Rights.: An International Journal