Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History

The notion that religion promotes conflict while “secularism ameliorates the problem” conveniently ignores the bloodshed perpetuated by 20th-century secularist governments, according to this comprehensive history. Valparaiso University history professor Howard (The Faiths of Others) traces the roots of violent secularisms to the Enlightenment, which sparked fierce debate “about the appropriate relationship between religion and modern polity” while birthing forms of government that enacted their aims through coercive means. He focuses in particular on “combative secularism,” which aims to villainize and diminish religions’ societal power, partly by promoting anticlericalism; and the “eliminationist secularism” practiced by the Communist regimes of the Soviet bloc and China, which seeks to eradicate religion altogether, often by destroying places of worship, criminalizing faith practices, and persecuting religious adherents. Howard illustrates how religion persisted despite vigorous efforts to uproot it and insightfully investigates why Western elites associate religion with violence while ignoring harmful secularisms, positing that admitting flaws with such systems challenges the foundations on which Western society rests. The result is an edifying investigation of the complex relationship between state authority, ideology, and violence. (Mar.)