ABSTRACT
In this chapter the terms ‘religion’ and the ‘sacred’ will be decoupled. The sacred will be revisited and re-theorized in relation to the secular, with the term ‘secular sacred’ being utilized strategically to highlight the break with the commonly expressed view that the ‘sacred’ is an exclusively religious category. This theoretical discussion will be followed by an analysis of the controversy surrounding samesex marriage and the deep-seated convictions about gender difference and equality which underpin it. This case is one among many that undercuts the assumed opposition between the sacred and the secular and demonstrates instead their potential mutuality.
