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The history and politics of secularism and the public role of religion in France, India, Turkey, and the United States. It interprets the varieties of secularism as a series of evolving and contested processes of defining and remaking religion, rather than a static solution to the challenges posed by religious and political difference.

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PART I: INTERPRETING SECULARISMS Comparative Secularisms and the Politics of Modernity: An Introduction; L.E.Cady & E.Shakman Hurd Hermeneutics and the Politics of Secularism; A.Davison Manifestations of the Religious-Secular Divide: Self, State, and the Public Sphere; N.Göle PART II: HISTORY AND GLOBAL POLITICS OF SECULARISMS: FRANCE, UNITED STATES, TURKEY, AND INDIA The Evolution of Secularism in France: Between Two Civil Religions; J.Baubérot Secularism and Security: France, Islam, and Europe; Y.Jansen God and the Constitution: Towards a History of American Secularisms; T.Wenger Varieties of Legal Secularism; W.Fallers Sullivan Public Private Distinctions, the Alevi Question, and the Headscarf: Turkish Secularism Revisited; M.Dressler Assertive Secularism in Crisis: Modernity, Democracy and Islam in Turkey; E.Fuat Keyman The ´Secular Ideal´ Before Secularism: A Preliminary Sketch; R.Bhargava Indian Secularism: A Religio-Secular Ideal; T.N.Madan Not Quite Secular Political Practice; Z.Hasan PART III: SECULARISMS REFRACTED THROUGH RELIGIONS Islam and Secularism; A.A.An-Na´im Secularism and Heterodoxy; G.Viswanathan Reading Secularism Through a Theological Lens; L.E.Cady

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"As the study of secularism continues to expand, this volume crucially extends our knowledge of secularism as a relational category. It de-centers the religion-secular binary and the presumption of European origins in favor of comparative study of France, India, Turkey, and the United States. If you want a better understanding of both histories of secularism and the conflicts driving events in today´s world, read this book." - Janet Jakobsen, Editor with Ann Pellegrini of Secularisms

"This rich collection of essays not only provides deep insight into processes of secularization in France, India, Turkey, and the US, it also enables us to reconceptualize what is meant by ´the secular´ and ´the religious.´ It adds important empirical and theoretical insight to current conversations on this question and, indeed, reframes the entire debate." - Joan W. Scott, Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study

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LINELL E. CADY is the Franca G. Oreffice Dean´s Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, USA, and the Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict.

ELIZABETH SHAKMAN HURD is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, USA.

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