Secularism in Comparative Perspective

Jonathan Laurence is Director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy and Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is author of Coping with Defeat: Islam, Catholicism and the Modern State (Princeton, 2021) and The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims (Princeton, 2012), both of which received the Hubert Morken award for Best Book in Religion and Politics from the American Political Science Association (in 2013 and 2022). Laurence is also co-author of Integrating Islam: Religious and Political Challenges in Contemporary France (with Justin Vaïsse, Brookings, 2006). He is an affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University (PhD 2006), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a board member of Reset Dialogues US.

• Chapter 1. Introduction, Jonathan Laurence.- Chapter 2. Islam, Political Governance, and Secularism, Asma Afsaruddin.- Chapter 3. Languages of Secularity, Sudipta Kaviraj.- Chapter 4. Islam and the State from a Shi’ite Perspective, Mohsen Kadivar.- Chapter 5. Catholicism, Colonial Encounters and Secularism in Asia, Jose Casanova.- Chapter 6. Secularism in the French Context, Carol Ferrera.- Chapter 7. The Absence of Secularism in Senegal, Claire Seulgie Lim.- Chapter 8. Secularization in North Africa, Jonathan Laurence.- Chapter 9. Rethinking Secularism and State Policies toward Religion, Ahmet Kuru.- Chapter 10. Secularism in US State and Society, Michael Walzer.