<underfire> Secularism and Religious Revivalism

[hs2068 at columbia.edu]

The heading for our current set of conversation ‘Secularism and
Religious Revivalism’ I think demands that we try and think about
what, if anything, is the difference between secularism and
religion, and why, in the current moment there is a large group of
people (it seems mostly liberal, mostly progressive) who criticize
religion all the while practicing religion by other means.

How for example, is “spirituality” en vogue in my two homes of New
York and Tel Aviv, any different than religion, and yet, it makes
people feel so much cleaner than practicing religion? Long ago
Durkheim argued that whenever a group of people get together you
have religion, that society, in fact, is religion.

Why the effort to distance ones self from the religious? How does
secularism function in the current political moment as a way to
justify disdain for the religious
is there a secular version of
turning the other cheek, might we want to develop one? Doesn’t it
have so much to do with the current way we think about Islam as a
religion?

I look forward very much to the coming conversation. Regards, Harel.