Towards a post secular society (original) (raw)
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FUTURE OF RELIGION IN THE POSTMODERN SECULAR CONTEXT
The International Scientific Conference Communication, Context, Interdisciplinarity, 2014
Secularization and the future of religion are current topics of interest not only for the philosophy of religion and for Christian theology, but also for other areas of culture and contemporary society. Postmodern thinking has changed the nature of society and how religion is viewed and practiced. What has changed in the perception of religion in today's society, and how will the religious phenomenon look in this century? Gianni Vattimo, René Girard, Richard Rorty, Charles Taylor are thinkers who debate on the return of religion in public discourse and in the academic space. In this context, Gianni Vattimo speaks about secularization as a destiny of Christianity. He sees secularization as a form of expression of Christianity, and not any form, but the best expression. Secularization does not have to be seen as a negative phenomenon, but a positive one to helpChristianity to fulfill its purpose.
Ars disputandi supplement series, 2011
As McClay explains the role of postmodernism:. .. Western secularism's claims to universal truth and impersonal rationality are decried as a form of cognitive imperialism. As a result, the claims of religion are no longer so easily bracketed as speculative and subjective. In the postmodern dispensation, where knowledge is understood as inseparable from the discourse of particular communities, religious assertions have as good a claim as anything else, and a better one than most on the mantle of`truth' Wilfred M. McClay,`Two Concepts of Secularism', The Wilson Quarterly 24 (Summer) (2000). 17 Kevin Vanhoozer,`Theology and the condition of postmodernity. A report on knowledge
Leaping from Non-Secular to Post-Secular Society
It is possible to assume that the particular history, politics and social milieu of Malta is making it possible to experience a shift from the non-secular type of community to a post-secular one with relatively very few signs of secularism. This seemingly strange phenomenon is particularly due to (i) a very strong Catholic Church, (ii) political and economic factors, and (iii) the ever-increasing interactions with western society. The paper analyses historical, political and sociological documents in order to investigate the Maltese experience of the non-secular and its persistence. It is argued that while, through the 1970's and 1980's, there was a systematic political endeavour to secularise society, the macro-economic situation and politico-religious conflict served to favour the strengthening of a communitarian experience and to counteract the process of secularisation. Ironically, it was the new economic policies of the conservative party -seen as being close to the Church -which served to bring about the introduction of individualism and a movement towards secularization. Recent sociological studies point to a shift in the way Maltese relate to, experience and conceptualise religion. It is argued that, while contemporary Maltese society is very much influenced by global trends, it is also very much up to the local Catholic Church whether Malta will move towards a secular or post-secular scenario. This paper will hopefully throw more light on the dynamics that play in the construction of meaning, and relationships between religion and society, and between the individual and the state.
Similarities and Differences in Perennial and Post-Secular Approaches to Society
2013
Issues of the truth potential of religions and its alleged incompatibility with scientific objectivity are among the questions that cannot be bypassed in discourses aiming to an integral understanding of society. In this paper, we will examine and compare two specific approaches that share the intention of taking into consideration religious truths when describing and criticising both modern societies and methods permitting their scientific examination within the academic field. As perennialism focuses on common metaphysical truth shared by all religions, and post-secularism deals with a possible form of cooperation between secular and religious morality, it is expected to find that their offered solutions to social crisis phenomena will be essentially different. However, the results show that basically both see the solution as a reorganizational task.
Post-Secularism in Multiple Modernities
Journal of Sociology 53 (4), 2017
Post-secularism is a term that has emerged in various disciplines including sociology to reflect the move back of religion in the public sphere and the need to take into account the voice of religious actors in any contemporary analysis of a society. This articles argues that post-secularism is in fact a specific type of secularism that deals with the neo-liberal management of religion in the public sphere. To unpack this, this article will first explore what is meant by post-secularism, and then via a case study on Shari’a in Australian, it will then move to the theory of multiple modernities to underline the relativity of such a term. It will then be proposed that what is meant by post-secularism is a type of secularism (perhaps a ‘late’ rather than a ‘post’) in neo-liberal societies.