On Changing the Subject: 'Secularity', 'Religion' and the Idea of the Human

Grey, Carmody; Duerr, Oliver

Abstract

The ‘religion/secular’ frame should be retired as a way of characterizing contemporary northern European cultures. The concepts of ‘secularity’ and ‘religion’ are both falsifying and question begging. They invisibly and unhelpfully predetermine the conversation about who and where we are now. Further, they are terms which increasingly lack salience in these cultures. If we seek to locate and articulate, in order to reflectively engage, the horizons within which contemporary northern Europeans generally live, the goods that orient people’s lives, the ideas and values that move and motivate them, we need to talk not about ‘religion’ and the lack of it, but about the idea of the human. Within the concept of the human is nested today the sense of orientation, meaning, goodness and importance that notions of ‘religion’ used to express. This is the conceptual territory on which arguments about ‘what really matters’ are now conducted. If one wishes to have salience in contemporary culture, one needs to speak to this.

Citation

Grey, C., & Duerr, O. (2023). On Changing the Subject: 'Secularity', 'Religion' and the Idea of the Human. Religions, 14(4), Article 466. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040466

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 20, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 3, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 24, 2023
• Journal: Religions
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 466
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040466
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1184564
• Additional Information: This article belongs to the Special Issue Churches in Europe and the Challenge of Cultural Witness - https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/churches_europe