Abstract

The aim of the essay is to dialogue with the new interpretation of secularization and, in a correlative way, of the essence of religion that Ugo Perone gives in his latest writings. As to secularization, in Perone one moves from an interpretation in a philosophical-theological key to an interpretation in a sociological-political key. As to the essence of religion, Perone individualizes it in a nucleus of resistance to every conceptual understanding of philosophical type as well as to every transcription in secular political terms. This is a way of reading secularization and the essence of religion which implies a rethink both of religion and of politics and of philosophy itself. The dialogue with Perone, beyond a deep consensus, concerns the measure of the interruption with the religious tradition made by secularization as well as the preservation of the moment of reflexivity typical of religious faith, that secularization would have stressed and made more urgent.