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Article published In:
Special inaugural issue: Translating the Extreme
[Translation in Society 1:1] 2022
► pp. 15–34

Translating (political) religious and secularist worldviews in a post-secular age

ORCID logo | University of Ottawa

Inspired by the works of François Burgat, Jürgen Habermas and Jean-Marc Ferry, this paper addresses the notions of the religious, the political, the radical/extreme, the conservative, the secular and the social as the objects of an extended conception of translation that defines translation as a mode of intercomprehension between competing or adversary groups within a single or among diverse societies. Shifting focus away from textual manipulations, it conceives of translation as a form of active engagement in social and discursive negotiations and explores translation as it brings about change in the dynamics of intergroup and intercultural relations.

Keywords: Islam, secularism, translation proviso, Habermas, citizen translation, inter-referential translation, social philosophy, social justice
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Translating the perceived religious into political reality
  • The social philosophy of translation
    • Enlarging the social role of translation
    • The translation proviso
    • Critiques of Habermas’s concept of translation
  • Citizen translation
  • Conclusion: Translation as justice
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.21012.bas
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