Neutralizing Secularism: Religious Antiliberalism and the Twentieth-Century Global Ecumenical Project

Abstract A marked feature of the contemporary U.S. constitutional landscape is campaign by an Evangelical-Catholic coalition against idea secularism, understood this alliance to mean exclusion religion from state and its progressive marginalization social life. Departing tendency treat project as a national phenomenon, article places it within longer global genealogy earlier international Christian ecumenical effort combat secularism. The triumph that culminated in making Article 18 Universal Declaration Human Rights, now considered paradigmatic legal provision on religious liberty. 18’s protection rights proselytize convert, I argue, was product impassioned contestation between movement keen securing prerogative spread gospel non-Christian world secularism strange with Islam region held greatest promise for evangelical enterprise—Muslim Africa. In excavating thought developed critique so-called secularist threat, recover delicate links anti-secular efforts.