In The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air (1849), Kierkegaard presents a succinct critique of Romantic aesthetics, in line with contemporary critiques of ecocriticism and ecophilosophy, e.g. by Timothy Morton. Whereas Romantic poets see nature as a mirror of their inner thoughts and pathos, thereby divinising themselves and their creativity, Kierkegaard emphasises the authority of the Creator and the exteriority of nature. He identifies the consequences of such Romantic self-infatuation on all levels of discourse: aesthetics, ethics, epistemology and ontology, and seeks to formulate an alternative. I argue that the discourses thus represent an alternative philosophy of nature, revealing an immediate joy for the gift of being-there. Being human thus means being dependent on and embedded in nature. This makes Kierkegaard a highly relevant interlocutor for contemporary ecophilosophy and ecocriticism, as revealed by Knausgård’s novel Morgenstjernen (2020).
Beginning with a critical evaluation of the expression ''post-secular society'' by Habermas, I continue to a presentation of four recent genealogies of the secular (Asad, Lilla, Taylor and Agamben) and a short deliberation on their consequences for theological discourse. Proceeding from this debate, I suggest a new approach to the question of secularity that combines the genealogical perspective with a topological inquiry into the conditions for social space, geographical space, and power relations, including their origin and emergence (geneatopics). I argue that it will also have to take into account the problem of the unplaceable and the unclassifiable (the atopia). Hence I offer a contribution to the geneatopology of secularity and religion, based on examples from the Nordic context.What would a geneatopology of the secular look like? The debate on secularity and religion currently represents a major challenge for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and Nordic theology is no exception. In my opinion it may change the scope of theological enterprise as well as its methodological approach on a permanent basis. Hence, a critical consideration on the consequences of the post-secular condition is needed, including the substantial criticism raised against modern Protestant theology. Finding the critique both eligible and challenging, I have elaborated arguments for a new interdisciplinary approach to the questions of secularity and religion, combining spatial and temporal inquiries.A post-secular society?The current debate on secularization and secularism was introduced by a volume that combined minute sociological analysis with historical considerations concerning the actual reasons for secularization. Comparing the situation within six countries in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, José Casanova showed that the historical and social explanations for secularization did not coincide and that none of the cases actually confirmed the so-called secularization thesis, providing Studia Theologica 65 (2011), pp. 172Á 189 http://dx.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.