This workshop aims to evaluate the concept of secret in a religious framework. Two main dimensions are in the focus of our “Bochumer Approach”: Contact and blank space. Secrets construct blank spaces that can be filled by unveiling the content (secret) on the one hand. On the other hand they refer to something unspeakable (e. g. mystery, antinomy). In this sense the unspeakable is determined by a frame hinting to the undefinable content. Such blank spaces have their own contact dimensions. E.g.: Sociologically they generate “insiders” and “outsiders” or furthermore they connect different groups by postulating to share the same “unspeakable” truths. This workshop will evaluate the functions and attractiveness of secrets as blank spaces and its special character as a type of contact.
