In Why Do Religious Forms Matter?, Pooyan Tamimi Arab reflects on the Early Modern roots and contemporary relevance of a materialist perspective on the politics of religious diversity. Taking as a starting point the insight that religions manifest in myriad sensible formsâin architecture, in images, in the use of objects in rituals, and in distinctive ways of speakingâTamimi Arab traces to Spinoza the material-religion approach prevalent in anthropology and religious studies. It is in Lockeâs political philosophy, however, that forms are tied to tolerationâunderstood as a neutrally applied civil rightâwhich Tamimi Arab discusses through contemporary case studies of mosque construction, amplified calls to prayer, and the right to ritual slaughter. Going beyond the Enlightenment criticism and toleration of religions, the book concludes with an inclusive reading of Rawlsâs ideal of public reason, which assumes forms of discourseâreligious and non-religiousâto always be several. Religious forms thus turn out to be indispensable to liberal democracy itself.
