Re: Fred Dallmayr: http://www.nd.edu/~rop/recent.forthcoming/fall99/Dallmayr.html Rethinking Secularism (with Raimon Panikkar) Fred Dallmayr
More than a century after Nietzsche's proclamation of the "death of God," some recent books speak alarmingly of "the revenge of God" and the prospect of a "new cold war"--a conflict pitting religious "fundamentalists" against agnostic secularists on a worldwide scale. Remembering the cultural struggles of nineteenth-century Europe, one might say that today Kulturkampf has been globalized. At this juncture it seems timely to reexamine the meaning of secularism and secularization against the backdrop of the pervasive secularizing tendencies of (Western) modernity. While the opening section reviews the "secularization thesis" as advanced by prominent social scientists and social theorists, the second part turns to the work of one of the most influential philosophers of religion in our time, Raimon Panikkar, focusing chiefly on his views regarding the "secular" character of religion, and the possibility of a "sacred secularity." Taking some cues from Panikkar, the concluding section reflects on the "religion of the future" and the "future of religion" in our globalizing world.
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