Secular Identity

The concept of secular identity was first developed in the mid-19th century to describe a set of beliefs about freedom of religion for the individual in a modern, national state. Secular identity grew with the expanding power and relevance of the state in the life of its citizens in European countries and the United States.

Early scholarly discussion of secular identity was dominated by its connection with the rise of power in the West. The sociologist Max Weber saw the decline in religious identity as marked by the changing social order caused by mass-market economies, industrialization, and universal ideas [Page 663]of citizenship in a state. The sociologist Paul Berger saw the West as predisposed to the rise of a secular identity because of its Judeo-Christian tradition of monotheism and ethical rationalization. For such thinkers, religion was increasingly viewed as less relevant to modern life. Emile Durkheim saw the rise of specialization in government and societal agencies as pushing religion to an ever-decreasing place in the lives of modern people. This view of secular identity is most easily understood by reviewing specific historical instances. The case of Zionism illuminates the new awareness of a changing identity especially well.

With the 20th-century emergence of fundamentalism (or the idea that religious doctrines and practices should be taken literally) in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, secular-versus-religious debates have become part of an overall global dispute about the role of religion. For the anthropologist Talal Asad, the narratives of modernity have erased the importance of religion for personal identity in the modern nation state. For Asad, continued exercises of power by modernists were attempts to eliminate religion as a competitor. But the debate has reached no conclusion. For every attempt to secularize a population, there is also an example of an effort to place religion back into the discourse of public life. As an example, the recent history of Iran provides a valuable example of the struggle between religious and secular identity in a modern state.