Throughout the West, Christianity appears to have collapsed. Never in modern history have Christian ideas about human dignity and personhood, about the permanency of morals and the necessity of familial society, been pushed so far from law and public life. This “secularising” trend shows no sign of abating.
What, however, is the significance of this “secularising” trend? In rejecting permanent morals, does it represent a turn toward relativism, even nihilism? Or does the “secularising” trend indicate not a complete rupture from theological concepts, but the persistence of these theological concepts in public debate even if their use has changed? Or does secularisation point toward the intensification of Christian theses—for example, a kind of ultra-Christianity that entrenches a politics of victimhood?
These debates on the meaning of secularisation reflect the positions taken by, among others, Augusto del Noce, Carl Schmitt, and René Girard. Yet Chantal Delsol has argued for a different thesis. The late modern, “secularising” trend should not be understood as the triumph of relativism or nihilism, except in the short term. In the medium and long term, late modernity represents the substitution of one set of morals by another. This is not a Christian, ultra-Christian, or even post-Christian set of morals. For Delsol, Christianity in the process of been left behind and discarded in moral, legal, and political thought. The West is transforming into something resembling a pre-Christian civilisation, a pagan civilisation. In this context, how should Christians transmit their faith and what is left of their civilisation? In these changing circumstances, is the idea of a Christian culture still desirable, let alone possible?
Bringing together promising young intellectuals, teachers, and writers from France and the United States, and guided by the thought of Chantal Delsol, this conference will debate the future of Christianity, classical education, and Western civilisation.
The conference will begin on Sunday with a lecture by Chantal Delsol, and a seminar discussing her work. On Monday, two panels will discuss the state of education in France and the rise of the classical schools movement in the United States, and what opportunities the changing political situation in each country presents. The conference will conclude with a debate on the viability of cultural Christianity.