Is Critique Secular?
Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech
Published on 9. May 2013
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-0-8232-5168-1 (ISBN)
Description
This volume interrogates settled ways of thinking about the seemingly interminable conflict between religious and secular values in our world today. What are the assumptions and resources internal to secular conceptions of critique that help or hinder our understanding of one of the most pressing conflicts of our times?
Taking as their point of departure the question of whether critique belongs exclusively to forms of liberal democracy that define themselves in opposition to religion, these authors consider the case of the "Danish cartoon controversy" of 2005. They offer accounts of reading, understanding, and critique for offering a way to rethink conventional oppositions between free speech and religious belief, judgment and violence, reason and prejudice, rationality and embodied life. The book, first published in 2009, has been updated for the present edition with a new Preface by the authors.
Taking as their point of departure the question of whether critique belongs exclusively to forms of liberal democracy that define themselves in opposition to religion, these authors consider the case of the "Danish cartoon controversy" of 2005. They offer accounts of reading, understanding, and critique for offering a way to rethink conventional oppositions between free speech and religious belief, judgment and violence, reason and prejudice, rationality and embodied life. The book, first published in 2009, has been updated for the present edition with a new Preface by the authors.
Reviews / Votes
"I can't imagine a set of more rigorous, humane and insightful interlocutors on this vital aspect of the public sphere." -- -Jonathan Boyarin University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill "This conversation among Asad, Brown, Butler, and Mahmood offers an important snapshot of the rich debates on post-secularism and critiques of secularism. These essays provide succinct and accessible discussions of key issues in these debates." -- -Annika Thiem Villanova University "This original and provocative book is an invitation to go beyond political niceties and engage issues of religious difference with candor. Both scholarly and engaging, the book uplifts the level of public debate on the entanglement of religious and secular reasoning in the making of modern publics." -- -Veena Das Johns Hopkins UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
409 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8232-5168-1 (9780823251681)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2013
1st Edition
Fordham University Press
€20.99
Available for download
Persons
Wendy Brown is Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is also affiliated with the Program in Critical Theory. Among her many book titles are Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Empire and Identity (Princeton University Press, 2006), Walled States, Waning Sovereignty (Zone Books, 2010), Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution (Zone Books, 2015), and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West (Columbia University Press, 2019).
Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Their books include Who's Afraid of Gender? (2024), What World Is This? A Pandemic Phenomenology (2022), The Force of Nonviolence (2020), Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015), Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (2009), Giving an Account of Oneself (2005), Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (2004), and Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990).
Saba Mahmood (1962-2018) was a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work focused on questions of secularism, religion, gender, and embodiment. Her books include Politics of Piety: the Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (2004) and Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report (2016).
Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. Their books include Who's Afraid of Gender? (2024), What World Is This? A Pandemic Phenomenology (2022), The Force of Nonviolence (2020), Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015), Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (2009), Giving an Account of Oneself (2005), Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (2004), and Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990).
Saba Mahmood (1962-2018) was a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her work focused on questions of secularism, religion, gender, and embodiment. Her books include Politics of Piety: the Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (2004) and Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Report (2016).
Content
Introduction Wendy Brown Free Speech, Blasphemy, and Secular Criticism Talal Asad Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide? Saba Mahmood The Sensibility of Critique: Response to Asad and Mahmood Judith Butler Reply to Judith Butler Talal Asad Reply to Judith Butler Saba Mahmood