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Faithfully Secular: Secularism and South African Political Life
Abstract
One of the most dramatic changes in the governance of South Africa since
1994 has been the move away from the Christian political theology of
apartheid to an explicitly secular legal and political regime. This process of
secularisation has brought South Africa into line with the majority of
national polities in the world. But there has been very little attention to date
to the form of secularism emerging here; its framing of the presence of
religion in public and political life, and its forms of governmentality. This
paper develops a basic model of state secularism that can assist in examining its post-apartheid forms in comparative and global context, and points to some of its emerging limits.
1994 has been the move away from the Christian political theology of
apartheid to an explicitly secular legal and political regime. This process of
secularisation has brought South Africa into line with the majority of
national polities in the world. But there has been very little attention to date
to the form of secularism emerging here; its framing of the presence of
religion in public and political life, and its forms of governmentality. This
paper develops a basic model of state secularism that can assist in examining its post-apartheid forms in comparative and global context, and points to some of its emerging limits.
