What remains of religion? Claude Lefort and the two bodies of the sacred

15 December 2025 | 11:00 — 13:00

Hybrid/Mixed

FBK Aula Piccola

Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola

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FBK Aula Piccola

Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola

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In 1981, Claude Lefort wrote an important essay on the theologico-political, which gained him a place in contemporary thought on religion. Since then, interpreters have continued to question this «profound and inexhaustible» text. However, the essay simply gave shape to a reflection on the institution of the social that had been developing since the early 1950s. This research sought to bring to light the exceeding dimension of the social—the very openness of the social—whose texture could not be reduced to an empirical, derived, or subjectively constituted order.
Focusing on the intellectual journey of the French thinker, on the various influences
(philosophical, historical, anthropological, psychoanalytical, sociological) that crossed it, as
well as on the debate on Marxism, which was fundamental in shaping his thinking, will allow us to bring out Lefort’s perspective on the reach of religion in society and to assess the disruptive nature of the «democratic invention».
If the democratic institution breaks with a religious social guarantor, what then remains of
religion? Observing how democracy cannot free itself from a dimension of alterity inner to the political will allow us to address Lefort’s stance on the secularization paradigm.

CLAUDIA TERRA | Università di Trento

Cycle of Seminars: Conservation and Transformation in Ethics and Religion

Scientific coordination: Massimo Leone, FBK-ISR

The event will be held in Italian.

The presentation will take place in presence in the Aula Piccola FBK while places are available and online.

Registration is mandatory by 12 December 2025 at 12 noon.

Speakers

Claudia Terra - Speaker

Università di Trento

Claudia Terra è dottoressa di ricerca in filosofia presso l’Università di Trento in cotutela con l’École normale supérieure di Parigi. Nel febbraio di quest’anno ha difeso una tesi, valutata summa cum laude, su "La questione della democrazia in Claude Lefort: paradossi e sfide della modernità di fronte al teologico-politico". Al teologico-politico in Lefort ha dedicato non solo la tesi di dottorato, ma anche articoli in riviste specializzate, nelle quali ha messo in rilevanza la lettura lefortiana dei due corpi del re di Ernst Kantorowicz e quella degli storici della Rivoluzione francese (Michelet, Quinet…). Nel 2022, presso l’Università degli studi di Milano, ha co-organizzato il primo convegno internazionale in Italia su Lefort, dalle cui giornate è poi nato il primo volume collettaneo pubblicato in Italia sul pensiero lefortiano, da lei diretto insieme a Mattia Di Pierro e Andrea Lanza (ETS 2024).

Registration

Registration to this event is mandatory.

Contacts

Organizers

The initiative was also realized thanks to the contribution of "Direzione generale Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali" of the Ministry of Culture.

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