The International Studies Public Forum and the Department of History present

"Religion, Politics, and Secular Society"
with Roberto Blancarte, El Colegio de Mexico

Thursday, February 28, 2013
5:00-6:20 p.m.
Social Science Plaza A, Room 1100

What is the role of religion in public life? How can we explain that our society is, according to many indicators, increasingly secularized, and at the same time religion seems to be a growing part of our political life? Latin America, with its Catholic tradition and its recent religious pluralism shows the difficulty of dealing with the creation of a more secular (lay or laico) State responding to the increasing demands for democracy, human rights and equal treatment to all believers (and non-believers). It is then through the lens of the so called secularization paradigm and the concept of laicization that we will try to understand the mechanisms of the contemporary role of religion, not only in Latin America but in other geographical and cultural areas of the world.

For further information, please contact Sandy Cushman, scushman@uci.edu or 949-824-3344.