Gianni Vattimo's Theory of Secularisation in Relation to the Löwith‐Blumenberg Debate

To a significant extent all theorising on the issue of secularisation since the debate between Karl Löwith and Hans Blumenberg in 1962 has been a footnote to this event. If the debate is seen as the starting-point for discussion on this subject, there have nonetheless been attempts made to move away from its restriction of options between seeing modernity as an illegitimate secularisation of Christian eschatology, or as a radically new self-assertion on the part of humanity. Gianni Vattimo has argued instead that secularisation comes from within the logic, and is a fulfilment, of Christianity. This article attempts three things: i) an outline of Vattimo's views, including a possible explanation of how secularisation works for Vattimo; ii) a survey of Vattimo's views on Blumenberg and Löwith; iii) an explanation of a judgement of why Vattimo's alternative to the conclusions reached through Blumenberg- Löwith debate is better than a superficially similar account of secularisation propounded by Marcel Gauchet.