Nineteenth-Century British Secularism offers a new paradigm for understanding secularization in nineteenth century Britain. It argues that George Holyoake's Secularism represents a historic moment of modernity, a herald for understanding secularization and modern secularity.
Michael Rectenwald is Professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University, USA. He is editor of Global Secularisms in A Post-Secular Age (2015) and Academic Writing, Real World Topics (2015). He has published essays on secularism in The British Journal for the History of Science, The International Philosophical Quarterly, and George Eliot in Context.
Introduction: Secularity or the Post-Secular Condition1. Carlyle and Carlile: Late Romantic Skepticism and Early Radical Freethought2. The Principles of Geology: A Secular Fissure in Scientific Knowledge3. Holyoake and Secularism: the Emergence of 'Positive' Freethought4. Secularizing Science: Secularism and the Emergence of Scientific Naturalism5. The Three Newmans: A Triumvirate of Secularity6. George Eliot: The Secular Sublime, Post-secularism, and 'Secularization'Epilogue: Secularism as Modern Secularity