«La città secolare» compie cinquant’anni

This is a foreword to the Italian translation of Harvey Cox’s new (2013) Introduction to his epoch-making book The Secular City (1965) and to the comments articulated by David Martin and Enzo Pace. It contextualizes Cox’s self-interpretation and retrospective self-criticism in light of the «new» debate on secularization. By this it is meant the simultaneous first systematization and first wave of full-fledged criticism of the secularization theory and narrative. Seen against this background, Cox’s book appears both flawed and long-sighted.