New Plural Settlements: The Secular and Secularization

This essay will develop a frame for considering the kind of plural society that is hospitable to both religious and non-religious members, from the perspective of an Anglican theologian. I propose to develop a train of reasoning that may have resonance in South Asia as well as in Northern Europe. I shall argue that if religious people, in multiple religious traditions, are to flourish, our society needs to be plural in a way that it currently is not, and that this plurality will include certain ‘secular’ dimensions – although these will need to be carefully circumscribed.