Overview

This anthology draws bold comparisons between secularist strategies to contain, privatize, and discipline religion and the treatment of racialized subjects by the American state. Specializing in history, literature, anthropology, theology, religious studies, and political theory, contributors expose secularism's prohibitive practices in all facets of American society and suggest opportunities for change.

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Race and Secularism in America shows how conversations about race and secularism can be enriched by bringing the two together. This timeliness, coupled with the excellence of the contributors, makes the book essential reading for our times. -- Ted Smith, Emory University Candler School of Theology A tremendous volume. Its originality and interdisciplinary breadth will attract a range of scholars in the humanities and social sciences. It will shift conversations within and facilitate new discussions across the fields of race, religion, literature, and theology. -- James Manigault-Bryant, Williams College Jonathon S. Kahn and Vincent W. Lloyd have pulled together a deeply original set of essays on race and secularism in the United States that effectively challenges intellectualist, European-derived accounts of secularist discourse. Focusing on the fundamental whiteness of American secularism, the collection highlights the ways in which the specificities of both race and religion have been managed-and obscured-through the ideals and practices of secular statecraft. It is an impressive and necessary critique of the widespread neglect of race and racialization in contemporary secular studies. -- Leigh Eric Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis This well-conceived and well-crafted collection provides another account of secularism by interrogating those processes by which not only are religion and religious discourse regulated or excluded but also race and religion are entwined, managed, or resisted. Methodologically and theoretically, these essays substantially deepen and complicate our understanding of secularism, religion, and race. -- M. Shawn Copeland, Boston College A turning point for understanding how relegating the sacred and the secular to incommensurable realms has produced and protected the structured advantages of whiteness and imbued the secular sphere with presumptions of innocence that preclude racial justice. -- George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place

I know of few books that have such a clear and important rationale as Race and Secularism in America. It shows how conversations about race and secularism can both be enriched by bringing the two together. This combination of topics is especially important right now. This timeliness, coupled with the excellence of the contributors, make the book essential reading for our times. -- Ted Smith, Associate Professor of Preaching and Ethics at Emory University's Candler School of Theology Race and Secularism in America is a tremendous volume. Its originality and interdisciplinary breadth will attract a range of scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Certain to become a foundational text, this book will shift conversations within, and facilitate new discussions across the fields of race, religion, literature, and theology. -- James Manigault-Bryant, Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Williams College

Author Information

Jonathon S. Kahn is associate professor of religion at Vassar College. He is the author of Divine Discontent: The Religious Imagination of W. E. B. Du Bois. Vincent W. Lloyd is assistant professor of religion at Syracuse University. His books include The Problem with Grace: Reconfiguring Political Theology and the edited volume Race and Political Theology.

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