Arché-ic: Secularization in Giorgio Agamben’s “Homo Sacer” series

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24220/2447-6803v43n2a4347

Keywords:

Agamben. Arche. Secularization. Signature. Transcendence.

Abstract

This paper puts Agamben in conversation with the topic of secularization. The fit between thinker and topic is quite natural, given that Agamben frequently approaches modernity through a theological archive, takes secularization narratives as the contrast space for his own account of intellectual history, and regularly discusses secularization through the lens of signatures. The result is that his work ends up revising secularization narratives by relocating the source of modernity in a deeper metaphysical regime rather than a past historical moment. The paper begins first by outlining Agamben’s engagement with secularization theorists and concepts throughout the Homo Sacer series. Next, I sketch Agamben’s ontological picture, exploring the “arché” as the backdrop for his analysis of secularization as a signature. I conclude with three ways Agamben’s work might reconfigure our conversations about the secular and allow engagement with new theoretical partners. By turning our attention away from the binaries of religious/secular to the third option represented by the messianic, Agamben revises traditional narratives about the decline of metaphysics, broadens our alternatives beyond the overly-narrow constraints represented by someone like Charles Taylor, and opens the beginnings of a possible rapprochement with postcolonial accounts of modernity.

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Author Biography

Kimberly Matheson Berkey, Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Chicago, Theology Course, Department of Theology. W Sheridan Rd, 1032, IL 60660, Chicago, United States of America.

References

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AGAMBEN, G. The Sacrament of language: An archaeology of the Oath. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011a. p.10-12.

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AGAMBAN, G. Opus Dei: An archaeology of duty. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. p.60-122.

CAVANAUGH, W.T. The invention of the religious-secular distinction. In: BARBIERI JR., W.A. At the limits of the secular: Reflections on faith and public life. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014. p.105-128.

CHRULEW, M. Genealogies of the secular. In: STANLEY, T. (Ed.). Religion after secularization in Australia. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015. p.139-57.

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MILLER, A.S. Early Onset Postmortality. In: MILLER, A.S. Future mormon: Essays in mormon theology. Salt Lake City: Greg kofford books, 2016. p.390.

TAYLOR, C. A secular age. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2007. p.43-50.

Published

2019-05-10

How to Cite

Berkey, K. M. (2019). Arché-ic: Secularization in Giorgio Agamben’s “Homo Sacer” series. Reflexão, 43(2), 189–204. https://doi.org/10.24220/2447-6803v43n2a4347