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The Political/Civil Role of Religion: What Narrative is Appropiate for the EU? Cover

The Political/Civil Role of Religion: What Narrative is Appropiate for the EU?

By: Walter Rothholz  
Open Access
|Aug 2018

Abstract

This article introduces an empirical comprehension of secularization – disavowing Max Weber’s grasp – which is based on the premise that a structural similarity of symbols leads to their transmogrification. The structure of society remains the same in a secular society as well, in that consciousness is still affected by the same experiences. Following a brief remark on liberalism as privatizer of all highest goods, one of the consequences of secularization is exemplified. The European Union is such a liberal foundation whose self-understanding has found itself at a loss of political approval. Based on a political economy, namely on the benefit of some is the detriment of the other, the EU has overlooked that a society always shares a civil religion to which it is not possible to give up: Renouncing the sacred always denotes a profound political crisis. And a political crisis will always generate a new civil religion, of fundamental reactionary nature, and, therefore, incurring the inevitable form of an ideology.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ress-2018-0020 | Journal eISSN: 2359-8107 | Journal ISSN: 2359-8093
Language: English, German
Page range: 266 - 281
Published on: Aug 30, 2018
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2018 Walter Rothholz, published by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.