Is Turkey a postsecular society? Secular differentiation, committed pluralism, and complementary learning in contemporary Turkey

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197530016.003.0008

This chapter investigates democratic politics and religious pluralism in contemporary Turkey through the lens of the concept of “postsecular society.” The author first reconstructs Habermas’s notion of postsecular society as an ideal type and proposes three criteria by which one can identify postsecular formations: secular differentiation, committed pluralism, and complementary learning processes. He then utilizes this framework to investigate relations between religion, state, and civil society in contemporary Turkey, focusing in particular on compulsory religious instruction in primary and secondary schools, the standing of atheism and unbelief in the public realm, and the rise and political suppression of a postsecular ethics of citizenship in the course of the Gezi protests of 2013. This analysis demonstrates that the concept of postsecular society, when applied critically, provides a powerful tool for identifying the forces for and against religious pluralism in contemporary societies, including those outside Europe.