Dossier
- ABEL Oliver, SINGER Christophe - Liminaire : Protestantisme et laïcité : une histoire à reprendre
- SINGER Christophe - La laïcité est-elle une question théologique ?
- NOCQUET Dany - Bible hébraïque et pensée laïque, lointaines proximités et résonnances atemporelles ?
- VOUGA François, ROHMER Céline - Comment l’esprit pourrait-il ne pas être laïc ? Dialogue sur la compréhension de l’église de l’apôtre Paul
- GISEL Pierre - Sortir le religieux de sa boîte noire. Pour repenser de manière fructueuse pour tous les rapports société civile/religions
- ABEL Oliver, SINGER Christophe - Annexe : Résumé du dossier « Protestantisme et laïcité » de Foi et Vie 123/4 (2020)
Is secularism a theological issue?
Secularism and theology gain by questioning each other on their claims to produce a totalling statement rather than taking up the stance of ignorance, withdrawal or recuperation. This article questions two opposing viewpoints on secularism, the teleological secularism of Henri Peña-Ruiz and the functional secularism of Charles Taylor and Jocelyn Maclure, on the religious side of their respective statements of emancipation or of the safeguard of human identity and liberty. The theological doctrine of justification through faith offers a reframing of these two concepts suitable for favourising dispassionate investment in secularism.
Hebrew bible and secular thinking, distant proximity or timeless resonance?
Addressing the theme of secularism in the light of the Old Testament carries the risk of anachronism, which is why the author approaches the subject from three aspects which can echo a secular comprehension of the world. The first is that the Old Testament introduces distanciation between political power and religion in a cultural universe where royal and religious powers are closely linked. The second, in discussion with Jan Assmann, shows how certain passages work on Yahwistic monotheism by opening it up to acceptation of different beliefs. The third highlights how part of biblical thinking revises the exclusive representation of Israel to consider shared election and decompartmentalised accessibility to the divine.
How could the spirit not be secular? Dialogue on Paul’s comprehension of the church
The principle of secularism partakes mainly of philosophical, historical and political debates. But the idea, developed by Rousseau and taken up by the French Revolution, of a social contract of a secular State guaranteed by the cult of the Supreme Being, takes root, amongst others, through its reformed reception in the reflection of the first Christian theologians on the life of the church. This article agrees to show the origin of secularism in the critical reflection of the authors of the New Testament. The argument relies on a reading of the political demonstration that Paul addresses to the Corinthians (1 Cor 12) and on the reflection in Matthew’s Gospel on the communitarian identity and discipline of the church.
Take the religious out of the blackbox. To advantageously rethink the relationship civil society/religions
To properly reflect on the relationship religion/society, the two terms must be reconsidered. Rethink society for itself, but in the face of contemporary tendancy to homogenisation and a repression of basic human questions. And rethink religion for itself, in the face of an ideologisation of its assertions, falsely autonomised and discultured. This requires the detour of a long and differentiated history. And this can lead to an implementation of the social and the religious which opens onto a productivity of differences, renewal for all.
Notules et Péricopes
- MARIAU Dorothée - L’expérience whiteheadienne de passage au cœur de l’expérience du sujet humain
- PLANTY Bruno - La parabole de la perle (Mt 13,45-46). Quand un marchand découvre ce qu’il savait déjà
Whitehead’s experience of transition at the heart of the experience of the human subject
Whitehead’s thought is disrupting. It leads to various existential attitudes that could be considered bold. The human subject emerges as experience of transition. To live this experience promotes a responsible empowerment, and such an entry into precarity brings about advent. This fundamental and founding experience is exceedingly religious: the human subject, as a being-attached, experiences God’s appeal. Then, remains the education to transition. Dependence and exposition to alterity constitute the necessary ways in order to achieve this goal.
The parable of the pearl (Mt 13,45-46). When a merchant discovers what he already knew
The two verses of Mt 13:45-46 are commonly referred to as the “parable of the pearl”. Yet it is indeed a merchant, an emporos, that Matthew compares with the Kingdom of Heaven, not a pearl. This remains a subordinate element which manifests itself through the consciousness which has found it: it is this consciousness which inhabits the parable. It does not wake up to an extraordinary revelation, but is part of this repetition masterfully described by Kierkegaard.