Research Project: “Religious Indifference as a Challenge for Theology”
Project management: JProf. Br. Dr. Stefan Walser OFMCap
The phenomenon of religious indifference, unlike the well-researched field of atheism, refers to a non-position toward questions of faith. An increasing number of people are simply indifferent to the question of whether “God”—whoever or whatever that may be—exists or not. This (non-)belief constellation, described and analyzed by Eberhard Tiefensee with regard to eastern Germany, is now extending beyond that specific geographical context and is crossing a threshold of theological attention.
What becomes clear is that this is not merely a new variation of the question of God beyond theism and atheism. Rather, the phenomenon of religious indifference disrupts a whole set of theological parameters:
1. The longstanding project of offering a rational foundation for faith—which for a long time lay at the heart of (fundamental) theology—is at risk of disappearing (unfinished?), as the underlying question itself now appears obsolete. The burden of justification is shifting: from demonstrating the rationality of faith to demonstrating its relevance.
2. At the same time, a foundational question of theological anthropology is re-emerging—one that challenges the discipline itself: Is it possible that the human search for God may not exist at all—not even implicitly or subconsciously—but is simply absent?
3. In the debate surrounding religion as an anthropological constant, the phenomenon of religious indifference once again brings the very concept of religion into question. Can definitions of religion—whether substantive, functional, or communicative—be stretched so far that even religious indifference could ultimately be classified as “religious”? And how meaningful or intellectually honest would such a strategy be?
Article titled „Die Vermessung des areligiösen Feldes“ published on: www.feinschwarz.net on April 5, 2024.
https://www.feinschwarz.net/die-vermessung-der-areligioesen-welt/
Lecture on Religious Indifference at the Centre for Catholic Studies / Durham University on February 8, 2024.
https://soundcloud.com/user-594051740/stefan-walser-so-what-religious-indifference-as-a-fundamental-theological-challenge
cf. Stefan Walser, Im Grunde sind doch alle religiös. Fundamentaltheologische Überlegungen zum „homo naturaliter religiosus“, in: Theologie der Gegenwart 65 (3/2022), 208–221.