Secularism or Democracy? Associational Governance of Religious Diversity

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Secularism or Democracy? Associational Governance of Religious Diversity. By Veit Bader. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007. 386 pp. $59.95.

Viet Bader, a professor of sociology and of social and political philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, has in Secularism or Democracy? written a timely, highly significant book that deserves to be widely read and discussed-in Europe but also in the United States. In his book Bader critiques the liberal ideal of a secular state that strictly separates religion and state and relegates religion to the purely private sphere. But he also critiques both religious establishments and the unlimited toleration of religious practices that …