Formations of the secular : christianity islam modernity Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like” this book explores the concepts practices and political formations of secularism with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non European world” and to what are seen as non rational dimensions of social life (things like myth taboo and religion) the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi layered history related to major premises of modernity democracy and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists historians religious studies scholars as well as scholars working on modernity Frontmatter Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Thinking about Secularism 1 What Might an Anthropology of Secularism Look Like 2 Thinking about Agency and Pain 3 Reflections on Cruelty and Torture 4 Redeeming the “Human” Through Human Rights 5 Muslims as a “Religious Minority” in Europe 6 Secularism Nation State Religion 7 Reconfigurations of Law and Ethics in Colonial Egypt Index