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Document Details :

Title: Van secularisering, seculariteit & sacralisering
Subtitle: … en van wat de theologie te doen staat
Author(s): VAN HARSKAMP, Anton
Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie
Volume: 50    Issue: 3   Date: 2010   
Pages: 304-321
DOI: 10.2143/TVT.50.3.3203443

Abstract :
This article’s central question is: Is the secularisation theory a myth or is secularisation truly operative in Western Europe? The secularisation theory appears to come in two main variants: secularisation as grand narrative and as socio-cultural theory. Neither is perfect. Nevertheless, relying on Charles Taylor and others, this article observes that it cannot dismiss the secularisation thesis as a myth. We in the West are undergoing the effects of secularisation; this process, secularity, has marked our culture. The second part of this article shows how the culture of secularity is itself being secularised (Jean-Pierre Willaime) and how, paradoxically, this has caused our culture to display an ‘anatheistic moment’ (Richard Kearney), in short, how secularity produces religion and how sacralisation and secularisation are antagonistically linked (Talal Asad). The article concludes by appealing to theology to produce a normative theory with which it can intervene in a culture in which religion and secularity alternate between alliance and conflict.

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