What are the ultimate reasons why positivist secularisation cannot be looked upon as a consequence of Christianity or considered irreversible?

On the presumed irreversibility of secularisation.

by S.E. Mons.Giampaolo Crepaldi

In concluding his observations about secularisation in the western world the philosopher Karl Löwith wrote: “But if people think each immature spirit was left to its own decisions in the most important things, it is astounding that morality did not degenerate completely”. What comes to the forefront here is that the emancipation of the temporal from the spiritual, the replacement of Christian salvation with progress and religion with science do not end up producing a true autonomy capable of preserving its own level, but bring about a phenomenon of “decadence”. In fact, Löwith considers it miraculous that it proved possible to retain an albeit weak form of morality after this separation.

Understood as the mutual distinction of the temporal sphere and the spiritual one, laicity is an historical result of Christianity. This distinction, however, did not mean the separation and absolute autonomy of the temporal sphere with respect to the spiritual one, but transpired within the Christian civilization, within a religious horizon. Christian rulers acted independently, availing themselves of political prudence, that is to say exercising their freedom of decision within a system of truths whose ultimate guarantor was the Church, which preserved and protected in Catholic dogmas the heritage of natural law as well.

As Karl Löwith argues, however, beginning with modernity was an increasingly demanding secularisation that made the temporal level “capax sui”, autonomous in the absolute sense, self-sufficient and able to bestow sense and meaning on itself. Before that time this sense and meaning had been ‘borrowed’ from Christian dogmas through a secularising interpretation of them, but then this sense-creation was increasingly claimed as proper to the temporal realm, and this would seem to have happened especially with Comte and positivism. Positivism is the definitive recognition of the fact that all we can know are relations, and hence it is the foundation of relativism.

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