Andrew Copson is the Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, where he was previously Director of Education and Public Affairs; First Vice President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union; and a former Director of the European Humanist Federation. In these capacities he is one of the most experienced and prolific advocates of secularism, its study, and its implementation. For over a decade he has carried out a range of national and international practical secularist policy work and spoken internationally on secularism. He has been an associate of the Centre for Law and Religion and the University of Cardiff since 2008, and represented the secularist point of view on public or other bodies such as the Foreign Office's Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Woolf Institute's Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life. He co-edited The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook on Humanism (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), with A C Grayling.

"Copson has managed to put together an accessible, but surprisingly nuanced and comprehensive, introduction to secularism that would be appropriate for undergraduate classrooms or lay readers interested in the topic." -- Mary Leah Friedline, Religious Studies Review

"Andrew Copson's short book covers a lot of ground. It is one of the best books I've read in this excellent series. Copson [...] provides a balanced and generous interpretation that presents arguments on different sides ... His approach is subtle and intelligent, and is informed by a deep understanding of the positions of those with whom he disagrees. I learnt a great deal from reading this." -- Nigel Warburton, Five Books

"Today's world is in dire need of the noble tradition of secularism, and I know nobody better qualified than Andrew Copson to expound it." - Richard Dawkins

"This is an exceptionally careful, fair-minded and positive introduction to the many meanings of a word often carelessly used. It will be an enormous help to all who want to understand better the current controversies about religious belief and modern society." - Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

"Secularism is of growing importance all over the world, yet it is also an approach with deep roots reaching far back into our history. Andrew Copson elegantly explores this history as well as secularism's importance today, showing how it evolved and how it is the key to de-escalating so many of the modern world's points of conflict." - Dan Snow