Sincerity rhetoric presupposed a sovereign secular self, not a religious product

Evidence

For not only was the idea of being true to oneself conceived of as a moral duty, it also presupposed the existence of a secular self whose sovereignty had to be demonstrated through acts of sincerity. The self’s secularity consisted in the fact that it was the precondition of transcendent (poetic or religious) experience and not its product. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 256 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sincerity aims at an ideal mode of being human nature prevents attaining — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 312; Franklin’s word change made equality claims self-evident rather than sacred — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 211; Secularism is an enactment of transcendent identity, not an intellectual doctrine (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• A secular self underlies rather than results from religious experience. #corroborates (0.92) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 256