Contested modernity: Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg and Carl Schmitt and the German Secularization Debate

Abstract

Understanding the Secularization Debate: Geistesgeschichte and Essentially Contested Concepts ConClusIon BIBlIograPhy samenVaTTIng dankwoord 'a tale of two Churches'Secularization is usually taken to indicate a general process of transformation from one worldview to another. However, 'secularization' carries multiple meanings and macro-historical concepts also 'occur' as concrete micro-histories. As such, it not only pertains to grand developments such as the separation of church and state, but also to the transformation of towns, rural communities and the every-day lives of individuals, as for instance the Dutch historian Geert Mak has shown in Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd. 1 Secularization, in other words, is also a story of 'how God disappeared' from the small Frisian village of Jorwerd. The current study is a philosophical investigation of secularization. More specifically, of the philosophical polemics between Karl Löwith, Hans Blumenberg and Carl Schmitt within the broader context of the German secularization debate. Before introducing these authors and the debate, however, let us first take a very concrete image of secularization, namely an empty church, as point of departure, in order to illustrate two different conceptions of secularization relevant to this study.A common way of thinking about secularization assumes that modernity and religion are essentially antagonistic concepts. 2 According to this view, religion is assumed to be modernity's 'other'. It represents the past that we have irrevocably left behind. 'Secularization' is subsequently regarded as a development that signifies the proportionate disappearance of religion and advance of modernity, or of its presumed auxiliaries: Enlightenment and/or science. The continued existence of religious ideas or practices in the present does not falsify this claim. Rather, it shows the stubborn persistence of a non-modern historical residue. 3 To those who adhere to this conception of modernity and secularization the question remains whether this 'non-modern residue' will inevitably give way to modern secular rationality or not; many hope that this is indeed the case. In the Dutch cultural context, secularization is commonly equated with 'ontkerkelijking': a decline in church attendance. The waning influence of the local church on daily life in a village or town replicates on a more tangible level a general development: the advance of modernity implies the decline of religion. This understanding of 'secularization' presupposes that, like the emptying of churches, we are dealing with a mono-linear, unidirectional and irrevocable process of gradual disappearance, be it one that occurs on multiple levels: God disappears from Jorwerd, people leave the local church, and religion exits society. Many, moreover, evaluate this process as an instance of progress, signifying the unproblematic removal of an inessential or detrimental element from society or daily life. 4 The second understanding of secularization -one which will be more pertinent to this study -doe...