Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-187) and index.
1. Idols, Idolatry, and Unnecessary Suffering -- 2. Starting on the Path to Secularity: The Agony of the Possible -- 3. Heroes, Charismatic Figures, and Celebrities as Cultural Idols -- 4. Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, and Secularization: Creativity, Secularity, and the Creation of Space for the Present Generation -- 5. Toward a Theory of a Society without Idols: From Civil Religion to Public Religiosity -- 6. Stifling the Sociological Imagination -- 7. Ambiguity, Controversy, and the Limits of Language as the Bearer of the Sacred -- 8. Beyond Idolatry: Religionless Christianity.
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This study attempts to articulate the nature of a secular society, describe its benefits, and suggest the conditions under which such a society could emerge. To become secular, argues Fenn, is to open oneself to a wide range of possibilities.