Terra Areligiosa. Philosophical-Theological Fieldwork on the Phenomenon of Religious Indifference

Abstract

Religious indifference as the absence of an existentially meaningful relationship to religion is inherently difficult to locate. Nevertheless, this article embarks on a philosophical-theological exploration of the field, tracing the positioning of religion and non-religion in William James, Charles Taylor, Pierre Bourdieu, and Johannes Quack. Even with a gradual appreciation of the breadth and complexity of the religious and non-religious field, the phenomenon of religious indifference remains obscure. James’ and Taylor’s works on the optionality of belief are barely able to deal with complete irrelevance. With Bourdieu and Quack, indifference can be grasped at least as an indirect relationality to the (non-)religious field. These localizations are of interest for a systematic theological examination of religious indifference, as the concluding theological self-reflection on the question of the optionality, rationality, and relevance of faith demonstrates.