Originally published on March 31, 2025 (Episode 402)
Introduction
“For many educated Westerners,” writes today’s guest, “the idea that religion promotes violence and secularism ameliorates the problem is a settled certainty.” Yet, as Thomas Albert Howard argues in his new book Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History (Yale, 2025) argues, regimes committed to secular ideologies often matched—or exceeded—the violence of religious states. In this episode, Tal Howard and I explore how certain forms of secularism became engines of coercion and bloodshed throughout the modern world.
About the Guest
Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard is Professor of Humanities and History and holds the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University. A historian of modern European intellectual and religious history, he is the author of numerous books, including The Faiths of Others: A History of Interreligious Dialogue (Yale University Press, 2021). This is his third appearance on Historically Thinking.
For Further Investigation
Thomas Albert Howard, Broken Altars: Secularist Violence in Modern History (Yale, 2025)
—, The Faiths of Others: A History of Interreligious Dialogue (Yale University Press, 2021)
Related Episodes
Talking About Each Other’s Gods — Tal Howard on the history of interreligious dialogue
Bible History — Bruce Gordon on the global life of the Bible
Jacob Burckhardt — Tal Howard on Burckhardt’s historical vision
Suggested Readings & Resources
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Harvard University Press, 2007)
José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 1994)
William T. Cavanaugh, The Myth of Religious Violence (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Listen and Discuss
Does “secular = safe” hold up to history’s record? Drop your take in the comments—and send this episode to a friend who thinks it’s just that simple
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