September 18 - 22, 2006. The Secular and the Religious
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Teaching Personnel
Clemens Pornschlegel - Ludwig Maximilians Universität
Barbara Vinken - Ludwig Maximilians Universität
Barbara Vinken - Ludwig Maximilians Universität
The Secular and the Religious
The relation between the Secular and the Religious will emerge, by virtue of the much discussed return to religion, but more so by the so-called clash of civilizations, as the decisive political agenda for the next decades. The equation of a progress of modernity and the decline of the religious turns out to be the European exception. The paradigm of secularisation shows signs of exhaustion: culturally, geopolitically and ideologically.
One of the most influential models of the interplay between the Religious and the Secular has been elaborated in post-revolutionary France. „Laïcité“ was the result of a cruel and bloody confrontation. It is a matter of vivid discussion today, whether „laïcité“ is the outcome of a translation of religious figures – and thus is to be considered a pseudo-religious – or the post-revolutionary French state has secured for itself an authentically secular foundation.
As the recent riots in the Parisian banlieues show rather drastically, it is certainly not the case that the model of laïcité, whose success depends on the integrative force of the French school, can be regarded as a universal model in that it is independent of historical and religious circumstances. In a first step, we shall examine the historicity of laïcité. We will pursue the question, whether the concept of laïcité, by turning its back on the Church, did not remain dependant on that very Church. In the case of France, laïcité would thus be no universal, but a specifically post-catholic formation. In a second step, the reasons for the actual crisis of laïcité will be examined. Finally, alternative models for the interplay of the religious and the secular shall be discussed.
Texts
- Giorgio Agamben: The Time that remains. A Commentary on the Letter to the Romans, transl. Patricia Dailey, Stanford (Calif.) 2005.
- Talal Assad: Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford 2003.
- Walter Benjamin: "Theses on the Philosophy of History". In: Critical Theory Since 1965 ed. by Hazard Adams & Leroy Searle, Tallahassee, Florida 1986, pp. 680 - 685.
- Alain Finkielkraut/Benny Lévy: Le Livre et les livres. Entretiens sur la laïcité, Paris 2006.
- Marcel Gauchet: Le désenchantement du monde, Paris 1985.
- Claude Lefort: “Permanence du théologico-politique?” In: Le Temps de la réflexion, II, Le religieux dans le politique, Paris 1981; reprinted in: Essais sur le politique XIXe-XXe siècles, Paris 1986.
- Pierre Legendre: Le désir politique de Dieu. Etudes sur le montage de l’Etat et du Droit, Paris 1988.
- Benny Lévy: Le meurtre du pasteur. Critique de la vision politique du monde, Paris 2002.
- Clemens Pornschlegel: „’Les princes sont des dieux.’ Zum Religionsverständnis des französischen Staates.“ In: Matthias Hildebrandt (ed.): Der Begriff der Religion, Erlangen 2006.
- Jacques Rancière: Les noms de l’histoire, Paris 1993.
- Barbara Vinken: „Herz Jesu und Eisprung: Jules Michelets ‚devotio moderna’“. In: Stigmata – Körperinschriften, ed. Bettine Menke / Barbara Vinken, Paderborn: Fink 2004
Contact
Chiara Bianchini - LMU Seminars Coordinator
Tel. + 39 041 2719511
Fax. + 39 041 2719510
