Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age

APRIL 4 & 5, 2008 at YALE UNIVERSITY

The two-day conference on Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age at Yale University aims to enrich the debate fostered by the publication of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age. The conference will bring together prominent philosophers, political theorists, historians, social scientists, theologians and literary scholars who will from a variety of perspectives reflect on the question: what does it mean to live in a secular age?

The conference papers address questions of secularism and religion in relation to politics, identity, subjectivity, agency, time, space, and modernity. In each panel, two speakers will present a brief version of their papers, followed by the comments of the panel respondent and an open discussion. In the final day of the conference, Charles Taylor will deliver a keynote address in response to the papers presented in the course of the conference. Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age is organized by Michael Warner, Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, with Craig Calhoun and Jonathan VanAntwerpen.

The conference is sponsored by the MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics, and Society, the Social Science Research Council, the Department of English, and the Office of the Provost. The proceedings of the conference will be published by Harvard University Press as Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, edited by Craig Calhoun, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, and Michael Warner.

For more information about the conference, please contact the conference coordinator, Ateş Altınordu, at ates.altinordu@yale.edu.

*Image courtesy of Harvard University Press.