Arie Molendijk, Justin Beaumont, & Christoph Jedan (Eds.), Exploring the Postsecular: The Religious, the Political and the Urban, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2010, 426 p

Authors : Cüneyd DİNÇ

Pages : 242-245

View : 19 | Download : 8

Publication Date : 2012-12-01

Article Type : Other Papers

Abstract :Religion is back in the academic agenda. It was Jürgen Habermas who first introduced the term postsecular in a German Peace Prize lecture in 2001, which he further elaborated in his later writings insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Habermas 2001, 2008a, 2008b);. For Habermas, we live in a postsecular society where the classical assumption of secularization thesis, whereby religion would disappear from public life has been shown to be wrong. Two important elements – within the societal context of Germany and Western Europe – refuted the former theory: first, the appearance of public normative debates, like abortion, steam cell research, which also involved the churches as legitimated public actors. Second, the visibility of Islam in Europe and its claim for Muslims’ rights within the frame of citizenship based rights insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Habermas 2008b);. While other authors also have dealt with the return of religion into the public sphere, namely Peter L. Berger insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1999);, Klaus Ederinsert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2002);, Jose Casanova insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(1994);, and Charles Taylor insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2007);, and authors who have criticized the term postsecular, such as Lilly Kong insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2010);, it was Jürgen Habermas who was able to name this new religious phenomenon.
Keywords : justin beaumont, arie molendijk, religious