Research Institute for Politics and Government, University of Public Service, Budapest organizes an online workshop
Christianity, politics, and secular religions
on November 20, 2020, at 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 social cohesion became increasingly 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, Christian democratic parties and political actors need to redefine their relationship to a newly emerging empire. 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.
The workshop is open for all interested.
Registration is available here, to join the webinar through MS Teams, click this link.
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 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
Illustration: Jacob Gerritsz: The Church as Ship (Utrecht, Catharijneconvent)