Prolegomena to a phenomenology of “religious violence”: an introductory exposition

This introductory essay discusses how the trope of "religious violence" is operative in contemporary discussions concerning the so-called "return of religion" and the "post-secular constellation." The author argues that the development of a genuine phenomenology of "religious violence" calls on us to critically reconsider the modern discourses that all too unambiguously tie religion and violence together. In a first part, the paper fleshes out the fault lines of a secularist modernity spinning out of control. In a second part, it demonstrates how the "liberal imaginary" revolves around individualist conceptions of freedom and sovereignty that, on their part, become parasitic upon imaginations of disorder, otherness and (especially religious) violence. In a third part, the author demonstrates how these insights call for developing a transformed phenomenological framework in order to give a more sensible account of "religious violence." Finally, in presenting the articles gathered in this "special issue" ofContinental Philosophy Review, some pathways into such a sensibilized phenomenology of "religious violence" are outlined.