--- product_id: 6523135 title: "Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present)" price: "R1032" currency: ZAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 6 url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/6523135-formations-of-the-secular-christianity-islam-modernity-cultural-memory-in store_origin: ZA region: South Africa --- # Cross-cultural insights on modernity Top 500 in Sociology & Religion Deep dive into secularism's evolution Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) **Price:** R1032 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Unlock the hidden layers of secular modernity — don’t miss out on this intellectual essential! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) - **How much does it cost?** R1032 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/6523135-formations-of-the-secular-christianity-islam-modernity-cultural-memory-in) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Rich Historical Context:** Explores major shifts shaping secular attitudes in the West and Middle East. - • **Interdisciplinary Appeal:** Essential reading for anthropologists, historians, and scholars of modernity and religion. - • **Highly Rated Scholarly Work:** Boasts a 4.6-star rating from 53 insightful reviews, reflecting academic acclaim. - • **Used Book in Good Condition:** Affordable access to a rare intellectual gem without compromising quality. - • **Provocative Inquiry into Secularism:** Challenges conventional views on secularism and religion, sparking critical thought. ## Overview Formations of the Secular by Talal Asad is a critically acclaimed scholarly work that redefines secularism through an anthropological lens, exploring its complex history and political formations across Western and Middle Eastern contexts. Ranked in the top 500 for Sociology & Religion, this used book in good condition offers millennial professionals a profound, interdisciplinary perspective on modernity, religion, and cultural memory. ## Description Opening with the provocative query “what might an anthropology of the secular look like?” this book explores the concepts, practices, and political formations of secularism, with emphasis on the major historical shifts that have shaped secular sensibilities and attitudes in the modern West and the Middle East. Talal Asad proceeds to dismantle commonly held assumptions about the secular and the terrain it allegedly covers. He argues that while anthropologists have oriented themselves to the study of the “strangeness of the non-European world” and to what are seen as non-rational dimensions of social life (things like myth, taboo, and religion),the modern and the secular have not been adequately examined. The conclusion is that the secular cannot be viewed as a successor to religion, or be seen as on the side of the rational. It is a category with a multi-layered history, related to major premises of modernity, democracy, and the concept of human rights. This book will appeal to anthropologists, historians, religious studies scholars, as well as scholars working on modernity. Review: Asad is a rare gem in our contemporary attempts to ... - Asad is a rare gem in our contemporary attempts to think about religion, secularism, law etc. Nothing matches the quality and greatness of his thinking. Whatever he writes is always full of insights. But it is very difficult to understand what he is trying to say in terms of the secular (dispositions) and secularism (as a doctrine) unless one reads his other master-piece Genealogies of Religion together with this one. That story he tells there, of the monastic world of medieval monks in particular, some of whom like High of St. Victor he mentions in the Formations, is essential to understanding how he thinks about the secular, vis-a-vis the pre-modern world of religious practice and its connection to community and tradition. This concept of tradition is what he also tries think in the Formations, with regard to thinking about what the secular inaugurates; but one needs to grasp of how he thinks about tradition in the Genealogies to understand how he tries to think about question of tradition in the secular. Review: Engaging - In Understanding the formation of the concept of 'this' is a very informative book. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #289,185 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #302 in Sociology & Religion #330 in Sociology of Religion #418 in History of Religion & Politics | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 53 Reviews | ## Images ![Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/613Yz5bYAdL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Asad is a rare gem in our contemporary attempts to ... *by A***R on November 24, 2015* Asad is a rare gem in our contemporary attempts to think about religion, secularism, law etc. Nothing matches the quality and greatness of his thinking. Whatever he writes is always full of insights. But it is very difficult to understand what he is trying to say in terms of the secular (dispositions) and secularism (as a doctrine) unless one reads his other master-piece Genealogies of Religion together with this one. That story he tells there, of the monastic world of medieval monks in particular, some of whom like High of St. Victor he mentions in the Formations, is essential to understanding how he thinks about the secular, vis-a-vis the pre-modern world of religious practice and its connection to community and tradition. This concept of tradition is what he also tries think in the Formations, with regard to thinking about what the secular inaugurates; but one needs to grasp of how he thinks about tradition in the Genealogies to understand how he tries to think about question of tradition in the secular. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Engaging *by R***Q on October 1, 2018* In Understanding the formation of the concept of 'this' is a very informative book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Almost an Anthropology of the Secular *by T***O on May 24, 2003* Asad, an anthropologist, is one the most interesting minds working on the concept of secularity vis à vis modernity and its tendentious universality. The entire work is loosely an examination of the secular as an epistemè and secularism as a political doctrine respectively as well as the interrelation between the two. Asking what an anthropology of secularism might look like, he avoids being bold and shuns an attempt to actually construct one. It's a concept that he's flirted with before in GENEALOGIES OF RELIGION, but any attempt to construct a magisterial theory are absent. As a work overall, the end result is a disjointed collection of previously published articles inter-mixed with new ones; however, it is worthy mentioning that even the previously published articles that reappear in this work we significantly revised from the original-at least the ones I was familiar with. Nevertheless, this doesn't detract from the collective value of the book. All the ideas he puts forward are cogent, probing, and provocative. His leading contribution is in the area of how secular discourse is perceived from the periphery of the modernization process-a periphery that `doesn't fit' into the metanarrative of Amero-European modernity since the Enlightenment. Thus, the conluding essay on the transformation of law and social ethic in colonial Egypt is alone worth the price of admission. His treatments of human rights, agency and pain, cruelty and torture, and Muslims in Europe best demonstrate the feasibility of employing anthropology as a disciplinary lens through which to scrutinize modernity and its `essential' components [esp. secularism]. Asad crosses the barrier of viewing the secular simply as the mere `separation between church and state' and enters into territory where questions can be posited such as `what created the historical moment which made possible the thought of secularism?' As such, he rolls back the shiny veneer of modernity to unravel the threads of it inner fabric. Thus, he facilitates the process whereby we can shed facile questions like: "when will Muslim societies secularize?"-moving on to questions that inquire into the historical processes that formed the secular/human subject of normative modernity in Europe. Localizing European/Western experience in such a way, a more lucid account of the advent modern society, state, religion, etc. in its non-European manifestations becomes increasingly attainable. Though rhetorically convincing, there are parts of the book that remain tendentious at best. In particular, this goes for his arguments for secularism origins lying in the modern cleavage between private morality and public law. Systematic delineation of the two spheres is actually quite old whether one refers to the Christian or Islamic tradition-just to mention a few examples, one could take the ETYMOLOGIES of Isidore of Seville or the various Muslim jurists extrapolations of the principle of "al-amr bi'l-ma'ruf wa-l-nahy `an al-munkar" (i.e., commanding the good and forbidding the wrong). Hopefully, fuller elucidation will more fully distinguish these pre-modern conceptualizations from their distinctly modern (and secular?) configurations. ## Frequently Bought Together - Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam - Secular Translations: Nation-State, Modern Self, and Calculative Reason (Ruth Benedict Book Series) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/6523135-formations-of-the-secular-christianity-islam-modernity-cultural-memory-in](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/6523135-formations-of-the-secular-christianity-islam-modernity-cultural-memory-in) --- *Product available on Desertcart South Africa* *Store origin: ZA* *Last updated: 2026-09-22*