Nationalism’s borrowings from religion do not make religion its source

Evidence

To insist that nationalism should be seen as religion, or even as having been “shaped” by religion is, in my view, to miss the nature and consequence of the revolution brought about by modern doctrines and practices of the secular in the structure of collective representations. Of course modern nationalism draws on preexisting languages and practices—including those that we call, anachronistically, “religious.” How could it be otherwise? Yet it doesn’t follow from this that religion forms nationalism. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 946

Categorization

• XREF: Uses for the Cooper bridge: prevents an over-simple ‘secularism = Christianity in disguise’ reading. The historical material Christianity supplies is real, but the modern secular is a new structural regime — a useful proviso against conflating Asad’s genealogical secularism with an identity thesis. — connects to: Christian nationalist adherence is primarily political rather than religious — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 214; Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism is reactive, not primordial — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 105; Anti-Christian church attacks stem from nationalist ideology, not missionary activity — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 268 (+13 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies that being ‘shaped by’ a religion’s materials is not being caused by it — a distinction worth tracking for the analytic distinction between genealogy and causal origin.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 946