The fall 2010 issue of The Hedgehog Review addresses the question, “Does religious pluralism require secularism?” Several contributions are freely accessible online: Rajeev Bhargava’s essay on secular states, Charles Taylor’s on the meaning(s) of secularism, and Craig Calhoun’s on a non-subtractive understanding of secularism.
Following on an earlier issue of the Review on secularization theory, this issue is concerned with unpacking what secularism is about. The editors write:
Secularism [. . .] is not anti-religious or simply the absence of religion; rather it involves the attempt to create a public realm shaped by respect for others and concern for their rights—a place in which deep differences can coexist. For a secular state is (ideally) one that enforces no one religion; treats people of all religions with equal respect; and preserves a public space for the free exercise and expression of religions. Secularism, in these pages, is thus construed as the friend of all religions, and the foe or champion of none.
Read the contributions online here, or order the whole issue—which also contains a bibliographic essay on secularism—on dead trees here.