Towards a post-secular political order?

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariano Barbato ◽  
Friedrich Kratochwil
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Role Of Religion

The ‘return of religion’ as a social phenomenon has aroused at least three different debates, with the first being the ‘clash of civilizations’, the second criticizing ‘modernity’, and the third focusing on the public/private distinction. This article uses Habermas’ idea of a post-secular society as a prism through which we examine the return of religion and impact on secularization. In doing so, we attempt to understand the new role of religion as a challenger of the liberal projects following the decline of communism. Against this background, section four focuses on Habermas’s central arguments in his proposal for a post-secular society. We claim that theproblematiquein Habermas’s analysis must be placed within the wider framework of an emerging global public sphere. In this context we examine the problem of religion’s place in political process and the two readings of Habermas as suggested by Simone Chambers.

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) and Early Christianity

1994 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. C. Frend
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ancient Rome ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Church

Thus Gibbon opened the thirty-seventh chapter of the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, a lengthy chapter devoted to the twin topics of ‘the institution of monastic life’ and ‘the conversion of the northern barbarians’. The connection between the history of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church was indeed indissoluble. The Church was destined to follow the pattern of the empire by gradually degenerating as it grew in strength from original purity in the life of Christ and the Apostles to become a corrupt and baleful influence on the fortunes of secular society. Looking back over twenty years of research and writing (1767–87) he wrote near the beginning of his final chapter, ‘In the preceding volumes of this History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion and I can only resume in a few words, their real or imaginary connection with the ruin of ancient Rome.’ He goes on to list ‘potent and forcible causes of destruction’ by barbarians and Christians respectively. As he finally laid down his pen on 27 June 1787 at Lausanne, he concluded with a sentence whose strict accuracy has sometimes been doubted: ‘It was among the ruins of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised twenty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.’ The date of this decision was 15 October 1764. Here we survey briefly the role of ‘religion’, i.e. Christianity in the ruin of the Roman Empire.

Law and Religion in a Secular World: A European Perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvio Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
General Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Secular World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion

This article examines two interpretations of the process of secularisation that can be traced back through European legal and political thought, and a more recent trend that challenges both of them. It does this through the prism of the public sphere, because in today's Europe one of the most debated issues is the place and role of religion in this sphere, understood as the space where decisions concerning questions of general interest are discussed. The article concludes, first, that the paradigm through which relations between the secular and the religious have been interpreted is shifting and, second, that this change is going to have an impact on the notion of religious freedom and, consequently, on the recognised position of religions in the public sphere.1

scholarly journals The Rites of Statehood: Violence and Sovereignty in Spanish America, 1789–1821

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Adelman
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Spanish America ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
Changes Over Time

Abstract This essay explores the varieties of expressions of political violence during the revolutionary conjuncture, 1789 to 1821, across Spanish America from New Spain to Buenos Aires. It challenges some of the familiar ways in which historians have pointed to violence as an inevitable effect of the end of empire, and instead argues that violence became a means to engage in the political process that brought down empire. At the same time, it argues that the role of violence in bringing down the old regime and creating new institutions and habits of rule and protest was at least as important as the role of the public sphere and elections, which historians have recently accented. Indeed, the essay suggests ways in which historians of the public sphere might consider the rituals and languages of violence as part of public conduct, while it was the opening of the public sphere that created a means, or space, to push vindictive patterns of violence into more vindictive directions. Violence was not of a piece, a constant display of carnage. The essay accordingly seeks to illustrate the varieties of uses of political violence and its changes over time, from the first crises of the 1790s to the widespread savagery of the 1810s.

Religion in Latin America’s Public Sphere

2021 ◽  
pp. 152-172
Author(s):  
Gustavo S.J. Morello
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion

This chapter investigates the role of religion in Latin America’s public sphere. For respondents, religion and politics share the space where power is traded. The privileged position is to challenge the economic order and to generate peaceful relations among the peoples and defend human dignity. Respondents dislike the use of that power to pursue a partisan agenda and to have a privileged voice over other persons. At odds with the laïcité project, respondents welcome religion in the public sphere when it challenges modernity to include the poor, and advocates for human dignity. Religion is cheered as a countercultural force. However, this acceptance of religion’s presence in the public sphere does not mean a resacralization of it. Respondents prefer to keep the differentiation of social functions.

Moral Universalism at a Time of Political Regression: A Conversation with Jürgen Habermas about the Present and His Life’s Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 11-36
Author(s):  
Claudia Czingon ◽  
Aletta Diefenbach ◽  
Victor Kempf
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Communicative Rationality ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Impact

In the present interview, Jürgen Habermas answers questions about his wide-ranging work in philosophy and social theory, as well as concerning current social and political developments to whose understanding he has made important theoretical contributions. Among the aspects of his work addressed are his conception of communicative rationality as a countervailing force to the colonization of the lifeworld by capitalism and his understanding of philosophy after Hegel as postmetaphysical thinking, for which he has recently provided a comprehensive historical grounding. The scope and relevance of his ideas can be seen from his reflections on current issues, ranging from the prospects of translational democracy at a time of resurgent nationalism and populism, to political developments in Germany since reunification, to the role of religion in the public sphere and the impact of the new social media on democratic discourse.

scholarly journals Sanomalehdet uskonnollisen muutoksen edelläkävijöinä

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Niemelä
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion

Artikkelissa tarkastellaan uskonnon näkyvyyttä ja sen muutosta pohjoismaisissa sanomalehdissä 1988, 1998 ja 2008. Analyysi pohjautuu 14 eri pohjoismaisessa sanomalehdessä julkaistuun, noin 5000 sanomalehtiartikkeliin, joita on tarkasteltu kvantitatiivisen sisällönerittelyn keinoin. Artikkeli linkittyy pohjoismaiseen tutkimushankkeeseen ”The role of religion in the public sphere” (Norel). Tulokset osoittavat viiden Pohjoismaan välillä niin huomattavia eroja kuin yhtäläisyyksiä. Luterilaista kirkkoa koskevat artikkelit ovat vähentyneet lähes kaikissa maissa, erityisen voimakkaasti Ruotsissa. Tutkimuksen perusteella Islanti ja Suomi ovat kuitenkin traditionaalisempia, ja luterilaisen kirkon näkyvyys lehdistössä on niissä suurempi kuin muissa Pohjoismaissa. Tanskassa, Ruotsissa ja Norjassa lehtien kuva uskonnosta on kirjavampi, ja erityisesti Tanskassa ja Ruotsissa luterilainen kirkko saa vain vähän palstatilaa lehdissä. Kokonaisuudessaan tutkimuksen tulokset antavat tukea uskonnollisen monimuotoisuuden vahvistuneelle asemalle ja näkyvyydelle sekä perinteisen uskonnollisuuden ja luterilaisen kirkon aseman heikentymiselle. Sanomalehdissä tämä muutos näkyy vielä korostetummin kuin esimerkiksi uskonnollisten yhteisöjen jäsentilastoissa.

scholarly journals Tajność i jawność w kontekście ochrony informacji

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 119-140
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kukla
Keyword(s):  
Information Security ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Sensitive Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Information

The goal of this article is to present the issues of secrecy and transparency in the context of information security and autonomy of information in the information society. It describes the role of information and its significance in the functioning of the state, as well as needs and threats in the field of information security. The second part of the article discusses aspects of citizens’ rights to secrecy, protection of privacy and sensitive data. It also characterises changes in the concept of autonomy of information, the public sphere and the private sphere. The third part discusses the issue of relations between state and citizen in the context of collection, storage and use of information.

scholarly journals Post-Sekularisme, Demokrasi, dan Peran Publik Agama

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Petrus Tan
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Faith And Reason ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Role Of Religion ◽  
The Relationship

<p><em>This article tries to elaborate the relationship between post-secularism, democracy and the public role of religion. The facts of religion’s global revival show the failure of secularization thesis about the disappearance of religion from the public sphere. In political philosophy and social sciences, this phenomenon is called post-secularism. In this article, post-secularism is understood as a phenomenon of religion’s revival in the public sphere or the legitimacy for public role of religion. This understanding is especially necessary  to encourage religion in addressing political, social and humanitarian issues. However, this understanding does not ignore the fact that religion often becomes a scandal and terror for democracy. Therefore, in this article, post-secularism also needs another understanding, namely as "awareness of a reciprocal learning process" between religion and secularity, religious and secular citizens, faith and reason, religious doctrine and public reason. The last model of post-secularism is urgently needed in Indonesia.</em><strong><em></em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Key words</em></strong><em>: Post-secularism, secularization, religion, democracy.</em></p>

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