Early modern secularism emerged from controlling the poor, hostile sects, and colonial expansion

Evidence

In the context of early modern Europe these problems were perceived as the need to control the increasingly mobile poor in city and countryside, to govern mutually hostile Christian sects within a sovereign territory, and to regulate the commercial, military, and colonizing expansion of Europe overseas. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 935 (#expands, via linked claim)

I in turn extend an invitation to those who work on the ideologies of colonialism, anticolonialism, and postcolonialism to deepen their historical understanding of these problems through the comparative study of earlier ideological constructs of the other, whether that other is portrayed as the intruding “colonist” or the subjected “colonized.” The European colonial enterprise of the modern era began in many respects in the Middle Ages, and the texts analyzed in this book provide key theoretical underpinnings for European Christian hegemony over those who are non-Christian (or in the case of Irish, Byzantines, and others can somehow be presented as “less” Christian than their conquerors). — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1378 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The same colonial influence that established secularism also provoked Buddhist communalism — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 135; Christianity obscured itself by promoting secular critique during colonial expansion; Modern domination both reacted against and transformed premodern Christian forms (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Secularism emerged to manage mobile poor and warring Christian sects #expands (0.96) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 935
• European secularism emerged by externalizing religious violence through colonialism #expands (0.92)
• Modern European colonial ideology has medieval Christian origins #complicates (0.74) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1378