Online workshop at the Research Institute for Politics and Government, University of Public Service, Budapest
November 20, 2020, 4 pm CET
The current politico-theological debates in the West have deep historical roots. The “rise of the state as a process of secularization” as the German jurist Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde put it, created a public sphere where Christian churches lost much of their political influence, while the sources of individual ethos and solidarity in society became ever more problematic. This challenge was answered by totalitarian regimes by the creation of new “political” religions, while liberal democracies insisted on maintaining religious and ideological neutrality, even if in a highly ambiguous fashion, some of them never abandoning the idea of a “civil religion” of the nation-state. The very proliferation of political, civil, or – more broadly speaking – “secular” religions raises the question whether the traditional conceptualizations of secularization are still valid, or Christianity itself faces a new situation in which Christian churches and political actors need to redefine their agenda. A Christian contribution to the “politics of the future” seems to depend on giving an appropriate response to this question (and many other related ones) in a both theoretical and practical sense.
Program:
Hans-Otto Seitschek: Totalitarianisms as political religions in the 20th century: historical and philosophical reflections
William T. Cavanaugh: The splendid idolatry of nationalism
Tamás Nyirkos: The proliferation of secular religions: theoretical and practical aspects
Michal Gierycz: The EPP’s role in the anthropological disputes within the EU
Patrick J. Deneen: Liberal and Post-Liberal Theology: From One City to Two
Phillip Blond: Christianity and Empire - Realizing the Universal
The join link is available on our website.
EJKK PÁK