The secularization debate went through a big change during the last fifty years. Could this change be described as a paradigm shift? The volume, after an introduction that deeply analyses the “secularization” concept, picks up and discusses in eight chapters several exemplary figures in the recent debate (H. Blumenberg, D. Martin, C. Taylor, H. Joas, T. Asad, M. Gauchet, J. Habermas, G. Vattimo).
Thus, the Author gives for the very first time, a systematic reconstruction of the changes and developments in this debate, ending in a real paradigm shift. The conclusion is however hesitant. It is unclear, Costa claims, whether this concept is still helpful to understand what is going on around us now and is in store for us in the near future.

Winner of the Book Prize of the European Society for Catholic Theology (category: senior scholar)