Radical Secularization? An Inquiry into the Religious Roots of Secular Culture

by Latré, Stijn; Van Herck, Walter; Vanheeswijck, Guido

• ISBN13: 9781501322686
• ISBN10: 1501322680
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-06-30
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

What does it mean for a society to be secular? Answering this question from a philosophical angle, Radical Secularization? delves into the philosophical presuppositions of secularization. Which cultural evolutions made secularization possible? International scholars from different disciplines assess the answers given by many leading philosophers such as, among others, Löwith, Blumenberg and Habermas (Germany), Gauchet and Nancy (France), Taylor and Bellah (North America). They examine the theory that secularization cannot only be regarded as a cultural change that was forced upon religion from an external source (e.g. science), but should also be considered as a phenomenon triggered by motives internal to religion. If religions are indeed capable of inner transformations, the question arises whether religions can persist in the secular societies they inadvertently helped to bring about, and how secular societies may accommodate religion.

Author Biography

Stijn Latré is Lecturer at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Walter Van Herck is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and the Centre Pieter Gillis of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is the co-editor of Humour and Religion (2011) and The Sacred in the City (2012). He is Editor-in-Chief of Bijdragen, International Journal in Theology and Philosophy.

Guido Vanheeswijck is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and is part-time professor at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven, Belgium. He is a member of the editorial board of the journals Bijdragen and Collingwood and British Idealism Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

A. In the Wake of Löwith and Blumenberg
1. Heaven on Earth? The Löwith-Blumenberg debate
Jean-Claude Monod (Center for National Scientific Research, Paris)
2. The Eternal Return of Gnosticism? Secularization and the Problem of Evil
Willem Styfhals (KU Leuven)
3. To World or Not to World. Notes on the Limits of Sacrifice
Laurens ten Kate (University for Humanistics, Utrecht)

B. Secularization in Christianity and Beyond
4. Christianity, Incarnation and Disenchantment. Marcel Gauchet on the 'departure from religion'
André Cloots (Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven)
5. The Strength of Weakness. Vattimo and Gauchet on Secularization
Andreas Michel (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Indiana)
6. The Legitimacy and Genealogy of Secularization in Question
J. Milbank (University of Nottingham)
7. Beyond Radical Secularization and Radical Orthodoxy
G. Vanheeswijck (University Antwerp and KU Leuven)
8. Apologetics and Anti-Apologetics in Taylor's A Secular Age
Charles Lockwood (Harvard University)
9. Religion, Modernity and 'Subtler Languages'
Gerbert Faure (KU Leuven)
10. Wilfred Cantwell Smith on the History of 'Religion' and 'Belief'
W. Van Herck (University of Antwerp)
11. Secularization as a Category of Historical Entitlement
H. De Vriese (University of Antwerp)
12. The Axial Age and the Dynamics of Transcendence
S. Latré (University of Antwerp)

Bibliography
Index