Towards a Critique of Secular Reason?

On December 10-11, 2014, the Institute of Philosophy (KU Leuven) will host the international conference Towards a Critique of Secular Reason? in Leuven, Belgium. The conference aims to explore the meaning of the concept of secularization in 20th and 21st century thought.    

The notion of secularization has often been used to define or characterize the nature of modern culture. Today, however, the validity of this concept is questioned ever more radically. The conference wants to take a step back from these recent discussions by examining the history and philosophical scope of the concept of secularization itself: What does secularization actually mean? More specifically, what does it mean for societies, theories, ideas or concepts to be secularized? Although secularization is often reduced to a political or sociological concept – designating the separation between church and state or the decline of religious belief – this conference aims to explore its meaning from a much broader and decidedly interdisciplinary perspective. In this regard, secularization appears as a theoretical concept with important implications for the study of intellectual history, metaphysics, religion, literature and politics alike.

Not only the recent debates about political theology, disenchantment, theological genealogy or (post-)secularity will receive ample attention, but the conference will also focus on the interwar and postwar German debates about religion and secularization. In an attempt to uncover the historical roots as well as the philosophical scope of secularization, Max Weber’s, Ernst Cassirer’s or Walter Benjamin’s interwar reflections on religion can be taken into account before proceeding to the postwar debates on secularization between Hans Blumenberg, Karl Löwith, Carl Schmitt or Jacob Taubes. Not unlike the contemporary scene, these thinkers have all tried to conceptualize the role of religion in the modern world, sometimes discovering some hidden religious traces in secular phenomena, while at other times showing how pre-modern, religious dynamics paradoxically made secular modernity possible. In this regard, the concept of secularization does not univocally emphasize the difference between religion and secular modernity, but it highlights the complex, multi-directional and often paradoxical relation between them.

 Keynotes:

-          Jeffrey A. Barash (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)

-          Michaël Foessel (École Polytechnique, Paris)

Organizers : Paul Cortois, Willem Styfhals, Stéphane Symons, Simon Truwant, Guy Vanheeswijck

Support: Dondeynefonds, Centre for Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Culture

Participation is free, but registration is required. For the program, registration, and further details on the conference read more on our website: