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Atheist Secularism and Its Discontents: A Comparative Study of Religion and Communism in Eurasia . Ed. Tam T. T. Ngo and Justine B. Quijada . London : Palgrave Macmillan . 2015. xii, 293 pp. Notes. Bibliography. $100.00, hard bound.
Book Reviews
This book treats secularism as a variegated phenomenon that is "produced through interaction of religious practices, political reform and state-building" (Introduction, 15). The editors claim that previous studies of secularism were insufficient and incomplete, because political practice in communist regimes absorbed rather than excluded religion as a presence in the public sphere, "defining, co-opting, and appropriating religion and religious forms was central to communist political practice and political imaginaries" (19).
Part I, "Genealogies," describes ways in which religion was central to the process of state-building. Chapter 2, "God and the Vietnamese Revolutions: Religious Organizations in the Emergence of Modern Vietnam," by Jayne S. Werner, emphasizes the Viet Minh's focus on decolonization and cultural revolution, and its toleration, even cooperation, with religious reform organizations, Buddhist and Catholic, during the struggle for independence. After independence, the Viet Minh did not attack religion per se. They regarded it as part of the national culture.
In Chapter 3, "The Socialist Interregnum (1975-1991) and Buddhist Resurgence in Laos," Grant Evans observes that the Laos Communist Party was anti-colonial, rather than anti-religious. After a brief, unsuccessful, attempt to ban religion, the Party sought to co-opt and reform Buddhism, which became the de facto national religion.
In Chapter 4, "Conflict and Coexistence of Church and State Authorities in...