Beyond a Normative Concept of Modernity: The Reinvention of the Church in a Globalized World

This paper aims at analyzing the secularist and liberal bias present in the research on religion in contemporary politics through the case study of Catholic diplomacy under Benedict XVI, whose action is rarely analysed in political sciences in difference to John Paul II. I intend to understand how religious conservatism remains on a strategy of adaptation toward post-modernity in order to give a new form to religious legitimacy. Therefore, beyond any normative conception of modernity, my goal is to grasp how religions recreate themselves in globalization. The method is based on an analysis of Benedict XVI’s official speeches and diplomacy to understand if concepts like “multiple modernities” offer a better description of the reinvention of religion in late modernity. My approach is therefore at the crossroad between discourse analysis and sociology of religion in order to understand the political significance of Catholicism in the 2000’s. My main result is that the German Pope has theorized the Church’s shift toward modernity. He is at the crossroad between the legacy of catholic integralism and the effort to redefine Catholicism in late modernity. Example for this “catholicisation” of modernity is his reinterpretation of modern concepts like “reason” that doesn’t mean only scientific and critical science for him, but is connected to a theological “logos”. Besides for Ratzinger, globalization is dependent of Europe’s centrality and law and democracy must be founded on the Church’s authority for the German Pope. The conclusion is that the Church under Benedict XVI develops a “reflexive” conservatism that tries to undermine from inside secularism. The precise role of Benedict XVI must be analyzed as a strategy to justify the Holy See’s claim to authority over secular global politics.