Secularization as a Challenge for a Contemporary Order Theology

Abstract

The Franciscan-Dominican research project “Transmission of Faith in Social and Religious Transformation Processes” runs over a period of two years. The phenomenon of secularization in its multifaceted nature and in all its contradictions is understood as the challenge for religion, church, religious orders, faith and theology in Europe. The research project, sponsored by the Philosophical-Theological University Münster (PTH) and run by the Capuchin order, is being carried out together with the Dominican philosophical- theological research center Institute M.-Dominique Chenu (IMDC) based in Berlin. As part of the research project, twelve theology lecturers from the US, India, Eritrea, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Germany discussed around the theological definition of the relationship of the Church with the world in particular, around various identity models and around the ecclesiological question regarding the relationship between weakness and power. It became clear during the symposium that (at least beyond politically militant secularisms) secularization phenomena should not be treated as problems at first. Rather, they challenge churches and the religious to redefine their place in the world, their identity and their attitudes towards secularized society.