Description:
Secularization, Social Order and World History provides a new perspective on the nature of secularization. This book demonstrates that the concepts of "religion" and the "secular" that are assumed in traditional accounts of secularization are not universal human categories, but specifically modern and Western ideas.
Review Quotes:
"In his new book, Kevin N. Flatt offers a refreshing, new take on secularization. He painstakingly exposes the weaknesses of the standard conceptual framing of secularization theory, convincingly establishing the importance of a broader appeal to anthropological and cross-cultural studies. The result is a profound challenge to common assumptions about the apparent waning of religion in the West and beyond. This excellent book is essential reading for students of secularization."
- Peter Harrison (University of Notre Dame, Australia)
"Secularization, Social Order, and World History is an engaging read that addresses some of the core criticisms of secularization theory with well-fleshed-out conceptual tools that don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. This book breaks the reader out of the Western religious/secular dichotomized mould, and dives into world civilizations where sacred social orders have and do still reign, to contrast their key characteristics and dynamics with today's Western secular social order. It adds important substance to a once empty understanding of secularity. A must read for those interested in religion, secularization, societies, global North-South power dynamics, and world history."
- Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (University of Waterloo, Canada)
"The growing critique of the concept of 'religion' has shown that the way that people today use this concept is a product of social changes that only began in Europe and North America about three hundred years ago. But how might we understand patterns in world history without the concept of 'religion'? Kevin N. Flatt takes this critical project seriously and puts forward a constructive theoretical proposal, illustrating with multiple cases from around the world how we can think 'after 'religion.'' The result is a promising new framework for how we might grasp secularization across cultures."
- Kevin Schilbrack (Appalachian State University, the United States)