How to Be Secular
A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom
Published on 1. November 2017
224 pages
978-0-547-51828-2 (ISBN)
Description
Why secularism isn't the same thing as atheism-and why it's crucial for preserving liberty and democracy for all Americans, regardless of their beliefs.
Founding father Thomas Jefferson believed that "religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God," but these days many people seem to have forgotten this ideal. Conservatives claim America is a "Christian nation" and urge that laws be structured around religious convictions. Hardcore atheists, meanwhile, seek to undermine and attack religion at all levels. Surely there must be a middle ground.
In How to Be Secular, Jacques Berlinerblau issues a call to the moderates-those who are tired of the belligerence on the fringes-that we return to America's long tradition of secularism, which seeks to protect both freedom from and for religion. He looks at the roots of secularism and examines how it should be bolstered and strengthened so that Americans of all stripes can live together peacefully.
"Jacques Berlinerblau mounts a careful, judicious, and compelling argument that America needs more secularists.... The author's argument merits a wide hearing and will change the way we think and talk about religious freedom." -Randall Balmer, author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America
Founding father Thomas Jefferson believed that "religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God," but these days many people seem to have forgotten this ideal. Conservatives claim America is a "Christian nation" and urge that laws be structured around religious convictions. Hardcore atheists, meanwhile, seek to undermine and attack religion at all levels. Surely there must be a middle ground.
In How to Be Secular, Jacques Berlinerblau issues a call to the moderates-those who are tired of the belligerence on the fringes-that we return to America's long tradition of secularism, which seeks to protect both freedom from and for religion. He looks at the roots of secularism and examines how it should be bolstered and strengthened so that Americans of all stripes can live together peacefully.
"Jacques Berlinerblau mounts a careful, judicious, and compelling argument that America needs more secularists.... The author's argument merits a wide hearing and will change the way we think and talk about religious freedom." -Randall Balmer, author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts Faith and Threatens America
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Jacques Berlinerblau
How to Be Secular : A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom
A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom
Book
09/2013
Houghton Mifflin
€17.90
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Jacques Berlinerblau, professor at Georgetown University and director of the Program for Jewish Civilization, is the author of four books. He has appeared on radio, television, and print, including NPR, CNN,
Al-Jazeera, the
Economist, the
Jerusalem Post,
U.S. News and World Report, and the
Washington Post. Berlinerblau is the host of the webcast
Faith Complex, which appears on the
Huffington Post and elsewhere.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Preface
- Introduction: Is Secularism Dead?
- WHAT SECULARISM IS AND ISN'T
- What Is Secularism? (The Basic Package)
- Were the Founders Secular?
- Does Secularism Equal Total Separation of Church and State?
- Does Secularism Equal Atheism?
- How Not to Be Secular
- THE VERY PECULIAR "RISE" AND FALL OF AMERICAN SECULARISM
- The "Rise" of American Secularism and the Secularish
- The Fall of American Secularism
- Are Democrats Secularists?
- The Christian Nation and the GOP
- REVIVING AMERICAN SECULARISM
- Who Could Be a Secularist?
- How to Be Secularish (In Praise of "Secular Jews" and "Cafeteria Catholics")
- Tough Love for American Secularism
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
- About the Author
- Connect with HMH
