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Emotion, religious practice, and cosmopolitan secularism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2013

IAN JAMES KIDD
IAN JAMES KIDD*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Durham University, Durham, County Durham, DH1 3HN, UK e-mail: i.j.kidd@durham.ac.uk
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Abstract

Philip Kitcher has recently proposed a form of ‘cosmopolitan secularism’ which he suggests could enable the members of a future secular society to continue to access and benefit from the moral and existential resources of the world's religions. I criticize this proposal by appeal to contemporary work on the role of emotion and practice in religious commitment. Using the work of John Cottingham and Mark Wynn, two objections are offered to the cosmopolitan secularists' claim that the moral resources of a religion could be both preserved by and employed within a secular society whose members lack emotional commitment to and practical engagement with the religions in question. I conclude that, pace Kitcher, cosmopolitan secularism cannot fulfil its promise to preserve the moral resources of religion in the absence of genuine religious traditions and communities.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 139 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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