Questions of secularity and modernity have become globalized but most studies still focus on
the West. This volume breaks new ground by comparatively exploring developments in five areas
of the world some of which were hitherto situated at the margins of international scholarly
discussions: Africa the Arab World East Asia South Asia and Central and Eastern Europe.In
theoretical terms the book examines three key dimensions of modern secularity: historical
pathways cultural meanings and global entanglements of secular formations. The contributions
show how differences in these dimensions are linked to specific histories of religious and
ethnic diversity processes of state-formation and nation-building. They also reveal how
secularities are critically shaped through civilizational encounters processes of
globalization colonial conquest and missionary movements and how entanglements between
different territorially grounded notions of secularity or between local cultures and
transnational secular arenas unfold over time.
