Abstract
This chapter is focused on political discourses about religious diversity and secularism in the Canadian province of Quebec. Asking questions about how experiences of modernity bear on constructions of national identity, it demonstrates that secularization has itself turned into a powerful myth centered on the notion of modernity as liberation from religious bondage. The chapter shows how in the post-migration context native populations evoke different cultural memories of modernity against newcomers. It argues that these debates function as a context which shapes indifference, both in scope and meaning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
National Assembly of Québec. (2008) Parliamentary proceedings. 38th legislature, first session (May 8, 2007 to November 5, 2008). Votes and Proceedings of the Assembly. Thursday, May 22, 2008. Vol. 40, No. 87.
- 2.
She refers to the movement Global Refusal, which published an influential manifesto in 1946 and is considered an important intellectual forerunner of the Quiet Revolution.
- 3.
I am thankful to Barbara Theriault for this observation.
References
Baum, Gregory. 1991. The Church in Quebec. Outremont: Novalis.
Breton, Raymond. 1988. From Ethnic to Civic Nationalism: English Canada and Quebec. Ethnic and Racial Studies 11(1): 85–102.
Bouchard, Gerard and Charles Taylor. 2008. Building the Future. A time for reconciliation. Report of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences. Montreal: Government of Quebec.
Burchardt, Marian. 2014. Does Religion need Rehabilitation? Charles Taylor and the Critique of Secularism. In Working with a Secular Age, ed. Florian Zemmin et al., 137–158. New York: de Gruyter.
———. 2016. Recalling Modernity: How Nationalist Memories Shape Religious Diversity in Quebec and Catalonia. Nations and Nationalism. Early view. doi:10.1111/nana.12233
Casanova, José. 1994. Public Religions in the Modern World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Christiano, Kevin. 2007. The Trajectory of Catholicism in Twentieth-Century Quebec. In The church Confronts Modernity: Catholicism Since 1950 in the United States, Ireland, and Quebec, ed. Leslie Woodcock, 21–61. Washington DC: Tentler The Catholic University of America Press.
Fournier, Pascale., and Erica. See. 2014. 12 The “Naked Face” of Secular Exclusion. In Religion in the Public Sphere: Canadian Case Studies, ed. S. Lefebvre and L.G. Beaman, 275–292. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Enzo Pace. 2014. Religious Pluralism. Framing Religious Diversity in the Contemporary World. Heidelberg: Springer.
Heelas, P., L. Woodhead, B. Seel, K. Tusting, and B. Szerszynski. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality. Malden: Blackwell.
Hüttermann, Jörg. 2015. Figurational Change and Primordialism in a Multicultural Society: A Model Explained on the Basis of the German Case. In After Integration: Islam, Conviviality and Contentious Politics in Europe, ed. M. Burchardt and I. Michalowski, 17–42. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Koenig, Matthias. 2005. Incorporating Muslim Migrants in Western Nation States – A Comparison of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Journal of International Migration and Integration 6(2): 219–234.
Knoblauch, Hubert. 2008. Spirituality and Popular Religion in Europe. Social Compass 55(2): 140–153.
Martin, David. 1978. A General Theory of Secularization. New York: Harper and Row.
Meunier, E.M., J.F. Laniel, and J.C. Demers. 2010. Permanence et recomposition de la « religion culturelle ». Apercu socio-historique du catholicisme québécois (1970-2006). In Modernité et religion au Québec. Où en sommes-nous? ed. R. Mager and S. Cantin, 79–128. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval.
Quack, Johannes, and Cora Schuh. 2017. Embedded Indifference and Ways to Research It. In Religious Indifference: New Perspectives from Studies on Secularization and Nonreligion, ed. Johannes Quack and Cora Schuh, 259–269. Wiesbaden: Springer.
Wohlrab-Sahr, Monika, and Marian Burchardt. 2012. Multiple Secularities: Toward a Cultural Sociology of Secular Modernities. Comparative Sociology 11(6): 875–909.
Zubrzycki, Geneviève. 2016. Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Burchardt, M. (2017). Is Religious Indifference Bad for Secularism? Lessons from Canada. In: Quack, J., Schuh, C. (eds) Religious Indifference. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48476-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48476-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48474-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48476-1
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)