Seminar on ’Secularisation’ with Ian Hunter

On May 25, the CBS public-Private Platform hosted a seminar that took point of departure in Velux Professor Ian Hunter’s paper ‘Secularisation: Process, Program, and Historiography’.

At the seminar Ian started out by introducing the paper, which centres the concept ‘secularisation’. To develop a historical understanding of the concept it is important to understand the three main historical usages of the term, which are (1) the epochal transition from a religious to a rational society, (2) the emerging from the negotiation over the Westphalian treaties, and (3) the origination in medieval canon law.

Further, in the introduction Ian contextualised the paper in relation to his current work in order to put it into a larger perspective. This led to a board and more general discussion among the seminar participants.