The judgment that we live in a secular society may reflect an historical aberration, a modern phenomenon, and largely an exclusively Western phenomenon, the recent judicial difficulties of Turkey’s ruling AK Party notwithstanding (but I will return to the subject of Turkey later). The philosopher Charles Taylor, in his recent book A Secular Age, suggests that a secular society may be one in which one can engage fully in politics without ever encountering God. Apart from some vestigial prayers on such an occasion as the opening of parliament (now to be preceded by a welcome from the original owners of…