Preuß K (2024)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2024
Publisher: De Gruyter
Edited Volumes: Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory. Sonderband der Zeitschrift für Soziologie
City/Town: Berlin, Boston
Pages Range: 51-78
ISBN: 9783111386645
DOI: 10.1515/9783111386645-003
Although "secularity" is often regarded as a feature of modern society, historians of Late Antiquity make frequent use of the concept to describe the religious struggles in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, during which religiously neutral spaces were created and contested. In this period, the idea of suspending religious judgment seems to have been implicit in a certain variety of Christian thought, with Augustine of Hippo as its most prominent representative. Given that Augustine is also a famous advocate of state-supported religious coercion, he makes the ideal point of departure for an investigation into both the possibilities and the limits of "secularity" in Late Antiquity. Employing differentiation theory, this paper seeks to reconcile the multiple understandings of "secularity" currently circulating in research. This reconciliation will allow us to see the emergence of a secular perspective as the result of a specific (and temporary) configuration of religious and non-religious spheres in Late Antique society. The paper examines a selection of Augustine's letters, interpreting them as a reaction to the societal differentiation occurring in his time. Finally, it shows how the secularity emerging here is compatible with the appropriation of state power for religious ends. The paper distinguishes between religion's self-differentiation and the kind of secularization that might go with it, on the one hand, and the institutional prerequisites necessary to bring about certain effects generally associated with a secular society, on the other.
APA:
Preuß, K. (2024). Secularity and Differentiation in Late Antiquity. The Case of Augustine of Hippo. In Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Daniel Witte, Christoph Kleine (Eds.), Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory. Sonderband der Zeitschrift für Soziologie. (pp. 51-78). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
MLA:
Preuß, Kai. "Secularity and Differentiation in Late Antiquity. The Case of Augustine of Hippo." Historicizing Secular-Religious Demarcations: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Differentiation Theory. Sonderband der Zeitschrift für Soziologie. Ed. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Daniel Witte, Christoph Kleine, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. 51-78.
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