Genealogies of the Secular
A growing international debate has sought to problematize the secular: to demonstrate its imbrication with religion, particularly Christianity; to articulate or advance something called the postsecular, beyond the nihilism of modernity; and to identify where amid this upheaval lie the resources for...
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| Format: | Book Chapter |
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Palgrave Macmillan
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45417 |
| _version_ | 1848757277810491392 |
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| author | Chrulew, Matthew |
| author_facet | Chrulew, Matthew |
| author_sort | Chrulew, Matthew |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A growing international debate has sought to problematize the secular: to demonstrate its imbrication with religion, particularly Christianity; to articulate or advance something called the postsecular, beyond the nihilism of modernity; and to identify where amid this upheaval lie the resources for critique. At stake are the potentialities of our religious inheritances and political futures. The questions of derivation and discontinuity that accompany the genealogical method are pivotal in the contemporary debate that asks how the secular derives from Christianity, whether in its discursive, governmental, colonial, or economic forms. Here, Michel Foucault’s account of the spread of modern arts of government is crucial. For Foucault, modern political forms of governmentality are best understood as emerging not through secularization but rather in-depth Christianization—as the proliferation of technologies of conduct formed in the ecclesiastical pastorate. In what follows, I will outline the key features of Foucault’s contribution to contemporary secularization theory, as well as its legacy in Talal Asad’s genealogy of the colonial dimensions of secular politics and subjectivity, as well as Giorgio Agamben’s recent work on the theological genealogy of economy. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:25:33Z |
| format | Book Chapter |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-45417 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:25:33Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-454172017-11-02T05:30:44Z Genealogies of the Secular Chrulew, Matthew A growing international debate has sought to problematize the secular: to demonstrate its imbrication with religion, particularly Christianity; to articulate or advance something called the postsecular, beyond the nihilism of modernity; and to identify where amid this upheaval lie the resources for critique. At stake are the potentialities of our religious inheritances and political futures. The questions of derivation and discontinuity that accompany the genealogical method are pivotal in the contemporary debate that asks how the secular derives from Christianity, whether in its discursive, governmental, colonial, or economic forms. Here, Michel Foucault’s account of the spread of modern arts of government is crucial. For Foucault, modern political forms of governmentality are best understood as emerging not through secularization but rather in-depth Christianization—as the proliferation of technologies of conduct formed in the ecclesiastical pastorate. In what follows, I will outline the key features of Foucault’s contribution to contemporary secularization theory, as well as its legacy in Talal Asad’s genealogy of the colonial dimensions of secular politics and subjectivity, as well as Giorgio Agamben’s recent work on the theological genealogy of economy. 2015 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45417 10.1057/9781137551382_7 Palgrave Macmillan restricted |
| spellingShingle | Chrulew, Matthew Genealogies of the Secular |
| title | Genealogies of the Secular |
| title_full | Genealogies of the Secular |
| title_fullStr | Genealogies of the Secular |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genealogies of the Secular |
| title_short | Genealogies of the Secular |
| title_sort | genealogies of the secular |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/45417 |