Secularism claims to be separate from yet productive of religion.

Evidence

In conclusion, I want to suggest that if the secularization thesis seems increasingly implausible to some of us this is not simply because religion is now playing a vibrant part in the modern world of nations. In a sense what many would anachronistically call “religion” was always involved in the world of power. If the secularization thesis no longer carries the conviction it once did, this is because the categories of “politics” and “religion” turn out to implicate each other more profoundly than we thought, a discovery that has accompanied our growing understanding of the powers of the modern nation-state. The concept of the secular cannot do without the idea of religion. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 972 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The analyses that I offer here are intended as a counter to the triumphalist history of the secular. I take the view, as others have done, that the “religious” and the “secular” are not essentially fixed categories. However, I do not claim that if one stripped appearances one would see that some apparently secular institutions were really religious. I assume, on the contrary, that there is nothing essentially religious, nor any universal essence that defines “sacred language” or “sacred experience.” But I also assume that there were breaks between Christian and secular life in which words and practices were rearranged, and new discursive grammars replaced previous ones. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 103 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Secularism as neutral ground cannot host a public sphere because it is itself theological — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 375; A secular majority depends on the religion it claims to resent. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 773; Modern environmental awe of nature is secularized religious worship. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 41 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Secularism claims to produce religion while insisting on their sharp separation #expands (0.97)
• The secular cannot be conceived without the category of religion. #complicates (0.73) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 972
• The religious and secular are not essentially fixed categories. #complicates (0.72) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 103