Nineteenth-Century British Secularism offers a new paradigm for understanding secularization in the nineteenth century. It addresses the crisis in the secularization thesis by foregrounding a nineteenth-century development called 'Secularism' - the particular movement and creed founded by George Jacob Holyoake from 1851 to 1852. Nineteenth-Century British Secularism rethinks and reevaluates the significance of Holyoake's Secularism, regarding it as a historic moment of modernity and granting it centrality as both a herald and exemplar for a new understanding of modern secularity. In addition to Secularism proper, the book treats several other moments of secular emergence in the nineteenth century, including Thomas Carlyle's 'natural supernaturalism', Richard Carlile's anti-theist science advocacy, Charles Lyell's uniformity principle in geology, Francis Newman's naturalized religion or 'primitive Christianity', and George Eliot's secularism and post-secularism.

Global Secularisms addresses the state of and prospects for secularism globally. Drawing from multiple fields, it brings together theoretical discussion and empirical case studies that illustrate "on-the-ground," extant secularisms as they interact with various religious, political, social, and economic contexts. Its point of departure is the fact that secularism is plural and that various secularisms have developed in various contexts and from various traditions around the world. Secularism takes on different social meanings and political valences wherever it is expressed. The essays collected here provide numerous points of contact between empirical case studies and theoretical reflection. This multiplicity informs and challenges the conceptual theorization of secularism as a universal doctrine. Analyses of different regions enrich our understanding of the meanings of secularism, providing comparative range to our notions of secularity. Theoretical treatments help to inform our understanding of secularism in context, enabling readers to discern what is at stake in the various regional expressions of secularity globally. While the bulk of the essays are case-based research, the current thinking of leading theorists and scholars is also included.

Global Secularisms addresses the state of and prospects for secularism globally. Drawing from multiple fields, it brings together theoretical discussion and empirical case studies that illustrate "on-the-ground," extant secularisms as they interact with various religious, political, social, and economic contexts. Its point of departure is the fact that secularism is plural and that various secularisms have developed in various contexts and from various traditions around the world. Secularism takes on different social meanings and political valences wherever it is expressed. The essays collected here provide numerous points of contact between empirical case studies and theoretical reflection. This multiplicity informs and challenges the conceptual theorization of secularism as a universal doctrine. Analyses of different regions enrich our understanding of the meanings of secularism, providing comparative range to our notions of secularity. Theoretical treatments help to inform our understanding of secularism in context, enabling readers to discern what is at stake in the various regional expressions of secularity globally. While the bulk of the essays are case-based research, the current thinking of leading theorists and scholars is also included.

"Slaughter's book is a novel of linguistic and conceptual richness. It is at once sensuous, paradoxical, harsh and beautiful, a beautiful surrender to unpardonable brutality, and an artistic rendering of it. Slaughter's development of ideas from the raw material of a rich and varied life, his epigrammatic delivery of strange wisdom, and his uncompromising fatalism, make this a challenging and yet rewarding read. The chief character is divided into three selves: Pee-Pee, Wee, and Ronny. These three persons in one, although representing different stages of the protagonist's life, are nevertheless simultaneously existing. Pee-Pee is so-named because of the attachment that others especially have to his particular physiological organ, and somewhat because of the connection of self to its very extension in the world, the beginning of personhood. Wee is not only the older Pee-Pee, but also, as the name seems to suggest, a collective identity comprising not only the character but also all of the book's characters, as well as the readers of the book, and everyone else in the world, whatever that may mean. But, as the name suggests, Wee also leaks. He is unable to prevent anything from penetrating, and invariably lets everything out. Ronny is the adult Pee-Pee and Wee, but also a character, who incorporates everything he has witnessed and that has been done by every other character in the book. He contains Pee-Pee, Wee, and the thinking and actions of others, only in somewhat an obdurate way, such that he becomes like a graveyard filled with the stones commemorating their lives. Yet he is charged with continuing as the witness who cannot forget." -- Michael Rectenwald, author of The Thief and Other Stories, The Eros of the Baby Boom Eras, and Breach

"Michael Rectenwald's new collection of poems, Breach, offers a powerful and yet humble vision of the world where the poet has found new inroads to connectedness. Rectenwald manages to embrace and resist his subjects all at once-his authority is relinquished and, as such, the poems are invitations to the readers. He speaks not for us or to us, but with us: 'The lone tree quotes the aesthetic of/all trees so all trees/don't have to be trees.' The strength of these poems is not in the breach of contract with the world, but the breach in confidence and authority... a leap into humility and the unknown. These poems will connect you to a world you think you already know." - Rob Fitterman, author of twelve books of poetry, including Rob The Plagiarist, and Now We Are Friends. "The speaker of Michael Rectenwald's 'Split Personalities' says, 'we sting to survive.' Another turns 'Togetherness' into a Lennonesque walrus of self-doubt. And in 'My Son Signals, ' the speaker concludes, 'The world's nothing but/one gesturing after/another.' "In Breach, his new collection of poems, Michael Rectenwald stings, doubts, gestures. His forms range from the metered-and-rhymed, to the prose poem. His music ranges from post-doc analytics to morning after confessionals. The poems are surreal, hyperreal, they posit debtors in space, and wind up landing in Topeka, Kansas. It's a wild ride. Exhaustion and promise coexist in the same line: 'It seems like the autumn of my youth.' Wisdom pours forth from children: 'Look Daddy ... the future is MOVING.' "Yes, it is. And so is Breach." - Tim Tomlinson, co-author of the Portable MFA; co-founder, New York Writers Workshop

Nineteenth-Century British Secularism offers a new paradigm for understanding secularization in the nineteenth century. It addresses the crisis in the secularization thesis by foregrounding a nineteenth-century development called 'Secularism' - the particular movement and creed founded by George Jacob Holyoake from 1851 to 1852. Nineteenth-Century British Secularism rethinks and reevaluates the significance of Holyoake's Secularism, regarding it as a historic moment of modernity and granting it centrality as both a herald and exemplar for a new understanding of modern secularity. In addition to Secularism proper, the book treats several other moments of secular emergence in the nineteenth century, including Thomas Carlyle's 'natural supernaturalism', Richard Carlile's anti-theist science advocacy, Charles Lyell's uniformity principle in geology, Francis Newman's naturalized religion or 'primitive Christianity', and George Eliot's secularism and post-secularism.