Europe’s Secularization as Overcoming of Separation

Abstract

This article proposes the conception of secularization as a process of Aufhebung, logically expressible through the Hegelian dialectics. From a critical standpoint, it can lead to questioning secularization as an abstract negation of religion or as a mere mechanical separation of spheres (both in the objective respect of institutions and in the subjective one of behavior). From a pro-positive point of view, this perspective also allows us to recover elements of the religious background of politics and philosophy that are beneficial to achieve a Europe united in diversity and open to otherness. Regardless of how secularization is understood, one of the main achievements of our continent’s history cannot and should not be used as a tool of exclusion and identity-based closure. Keywords: Hegel, dialectics, Europe, migration, radicalism, identity, alterity.