Abstract
The Labour government under Tony Blair’s premiership (1997–2007) taxes our usual approaches to the interpretation of politics. In 2001 – although the preparation had been long – the West entered a period that we shall call ‘post-secular’. This is both a chronological judgement but also a judgement about a renewal in the standing of the religions in relation to public life. We are in a new epoch and a new condition. Blair’s premiership was both caught up in this transition but also encouraged and reshaped it. Only in extended religious-moral perspective, we claim, can this period of New Labour be adequately understood.
Of course, with this religious resurgence comes a deepening of the processes of secularization. It is not that secularization is a tide that is on the turn, and we should thereafter expect for the sea of faith to come rushing in. Rather, we have multiple processes at work, often intertwined, that have often unlooked for and sometimes contradictory results.
Of course, with this religious resurgence comes a deepening of the processes of secularization. It is not that secularization is a tide that is on the turn, and we should thereafter expect for the sea of faith to come rushing in. Rather, we have multiple processes at work, often intertwined, that have often unlooked for and sometimes contradictory results.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Remoralizing Britain? |
| Subtitle of host publication | Political, Ethical and Theological Perspectives on New Labour |
| Editors | Peter Manley Scott, Christopher R. Baker, Elaine L. Graham |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Continuum |
| Chapter | 14 |
| Pages | 223–246 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Edition | 1 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781472549303 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780826444141, 9780826424655 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Mar 2009 |
Publication series
| Name | Continuum Resources in Religion and Political Culture |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Continuum |