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The détente or 'mutual ignorance pact' between secular culture and religious faith that characterised most of the twentieth century has been shattered in the early twenty-first. From the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the American Christian Right to the fiercely anti-religious writings of staunch atheists such as Richard Dawkins, arguments over the role that religion and spirituality should play in our lives - public and private - have never been more hotly debated. One extremism is pitted against another, but a new voice of moderation, a hidden challenge to both extremisms, is now emerging. In Postsecularism, the follow-up to his acclaimed Secularism, Mike King posits that out of the conflict between socially dominant secular thinkers and the embattled 'new defenders of faith' a third approach arises which is neither a return to pre-Enlightenment beliefs nor a continued hegemony of the secular. King identifies this as the postsecular. It retains critical modes of thought and at the same time returns in all seriousness to questions of the spirit. The postsecular provides a framework within which to move beyond religious and atheist extremism. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary thinkers from Dawkins to Anthony Flew, from Christopher Hitchens to Alister McGrath, from across the spiritual spectrum, King identifies a new mode of thought, exploring its relevance to everything from physics to the arts, postmodernism, and feminism. What emerges is a thoughtful and persuasive discussion of the route to reconciliation between the combative worlds of the religious and the secular. Dr Mike King is Visiting Research Fellow at London Metropolitan University. This book is the companion volume to his 'Secularism'.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought-provoking,
By JCPC "Sum ergo cogito" (Bristol, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Postsecularism: The Hidden Challenge to Extremism (Paperback)
This book starts badly - with the title. Mike King, who describes himself as "a scholar, artist and spiritual teacher" seems to be marking out an intellectual territory with his use of 'postsecularism' but uses the word quite differently from its natural meaning: after secularism. By secularism he does not mean separation of church and state as most people do, he basically means atheism: so postsecularism is used to mean a return to a recognition of a spiritual aspect to life after the basis of established religion was all but demolished by the enlightenment thinkers. His thesis, outlined in an earlier book, is that these thinkers stumbled into atheism by mistake when really they would have preferred to develop a non-authoritarian, non-denominational, general-purpose spirituality - along with a secular society.
From a european intellectual point of view he sees american fundamentalist christians and middle-eastern (and other) fundamentalist moslems as a new and dangerous revolt against rationalism. Clearly these religious groups are not new but he feels they previously co-existed with the rational elite by a process of mutual ignorance which is now breaking down. This tension has spawned a counter revolt by fundamentalist atheists of the Richard Dawkins variety. So he hopes and argues that the time has come to resurrect the enlightenment ideal of a spirituality which is completely at ease with rigorous critical thinking. The bulk of the book is a series of criticisms of the many alternative arguments and analysis of areas of agreement with other modern philosophical / social / political / cultural movements. He is evidently well versed in these (with 24 pages of references and bibliography) and enjoys using some rather difficult jargon but his personal take on them is generally illuminating. He concludes that the rational/spiritual approach is actually already established as a consequence of the 'New Age' movement of 60s & 70s and can potentially defuse the impasse between the extremists of both sides. Perhaps a better title would be "Post-postmodernism: the thirst for meaning" or something similar. Maybe I'll have to write that one...
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting conclusions from insightful perspectives,
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This review is from: Postsecularism: The Hidden Challenge to Extremism (Paperback)
This book follows on from 'Secularism: The Hidden Origins of Disbelief', and although the author often refers to it, he runs through the arguments comprehensively so that the book can be successfully read on its own. Postsecularism is written against the background of 9/11 and explores the reactions of both new atheists and religious fundamentalists. Both groups are enraged by extremes of behaviour; the new atheists blame religion whereas the fundamentalists, its absence. Beyond this conflict King shows that another force is emerging, that of the `new defenders of faith', people who pursue questions of spirit without letting go of critical modes of thinking. This is Postsecularism. To examine postsecular thinking he draws on the works of a large array of contemporary thinkers and explores various domains, from Physics to Feminism, from Consciousness Studies to Transpersonal Psychology, Art and the New Age. Mike King engages with what Stephen Gould called NOMA (Non-Overlapping Magisteria), which asserts that the domains of science and religion require a different approach and understanding and the tools used in one, cannot be used to investigate the other. It is against this important premise that Mike King develops the argument that science and spirituality are not competitors in the search for an understanding of Reality, but different ways of examining it, using different resources. From this analysis emerges the understanding of the challenges of extremism and also the context in which postsecular thinking enables Western thought to develop within a framework in which both spirituality and science can retain their integrity. The book is a compelling document of well researched and cross referenced material and the author has a clarity of writing which makes its density accessible and an enjoyable read. Above all it makes sense of the current situation in the West, in which many people see themselves as spiritual but cannot find in organised religion something which resonates with their search. The book is not only a rich source of knowledge, but it also leads to moments of resonance in which we can recognise our own place on the complex spectrum of spirituality.
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