Universals, difference, and ghosts: A response to Joseph Blankholm's <i>The Secular Paradox</i>

This essay provides a critical response to Joseph Blankholm’s new work The Secular Paradox . I praise the book for its ingenuity and then raise questions about how the experience of what he calls the “secular paradox” might vary by racial identity. I also explore the intolerance of western liberalism toward ghosts to explore how Blankholm’s account of the secular paradox might also offer insight into America’s unwillingness to grapple with its primitive past.