The Dialectic Between the Social Demand for Plurality, the Diverse Devotional Options and the Exclusivity of Belief. An Additional Cause of Secularization?
Abstract
Contemporary society fosters pluralism unrestrictedly, taken as diversity of options on offer in any sphere of life. Even though in some areas such diversity is complementary and enriching, there are others in which it is alternative, yet inclusive, and still other ones where such diversity is selective. This is usually the case with religions, especially with the monotheistic ones. The social demand for unrestricted plurality –that in the religious field turns into diverse devotional options on offer– collides with the demand of exclusivity with no alternatives, that is peculiar to religions. Philosophy, theology or social theory promote a pluralist attitude congenial to our times, but this pluralism is highly problematic both for religious denominations and their devotes. This strain is plausibly an additional cause for the decrease of religious beliefs and practices in the Western world, one of the key facets of secularisation, decrease significantly influenced by the Enlightenment and science, in spite of reservations in this regard put forward by certain scholars.
Keywords: pluralism, diversity, religion, belief, secularisation, devotion, science.
Downloads
References
Casanova, J., Public Religions in the Modern World, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Casanova, J., “Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective”, The Hedgehog Review, Spring & Summer, 2006.
Casanova, J., Genealogías de la secularización, Barcelona, Anthropos, 2013.
Cox, J., The English Churches in a Secular Society, Nueva York, Oxford Uni. Press.
Crick, F., What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery, Basic Books, Nueva York, 1990.
Darwin, Ch., The life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Vol II, Gloucester, Dodo Press, 2011.
Davie, G., Religion in Britain Since 1945: Believing Without Belonging, Blackwell, Oxford, 1994.
Davie, G., Religion in Modern Europe: A Memory Mutates, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
Dawkins, R., The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2006.
Ferry, J. M., “La religión in foro publico”, en Romerales, E., y Zazo, E. (2016; pp. 25-52).
Ferry, J.M., Les Lumières de la religion. Les religions dans l’espace public, Bayard, 2013.
Gómez Caffarena, J. y Mardones, J.M. (eds.), Estudiar la religión, Barcelona, Anthropos, 1993.
Habermas, J., Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion. Philosophische Aufsätze. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 2005. Trad. esp. Entre naturalismo y religion, Barcelona, Paidós, 2006.
Habermas, J., “Religion in der Öffentlichkeit”, en Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion (pp. 119-154).
Hick, J., An Interpretation of Religion, Londres, Macmillan, 1989.
Hick, J., “Hacia una comprensión religiosa de la religión”, en Gómez Caffarena, J., y Mardones, J. M.
(1993; pp. 97-118).
Hsiao-Lan, H. & Allen, W., Taoism, Langhorne, PA, Chelsea House Publishers, 2005.
Katz, T. S. (ed.), Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, Londres, Sheldon, 1978.
Katz, T. S., “Language, Epistemology and Mysticism”, en Katz, S. T., (ed.), Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis; (pp. 22-66).
Kenny, A., The Unknown God. Agnostic Essays, Nueva York, Continuum, 2004.
Paniker, R., Religión y religiones, Madrid, Gredos, 1965.
Radhakrishnan, S., La concepción hindú de la vida, Madrid, Alianza, 1969.
Romerales, E., “El pluralismo religioso de John Hick”, en Gómez Caffarena, J., y Mardones, J. M. (1993; pp. 287-304).
Romerales, E., y Zazo, E. (eds.), Religiones en el espacio público, Barcelona, Gedisa, 2016.
Taylor, Ch., A Secular Age, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Uni. Press, 2007.
Zohar: el libro del esplendor (selección), tr. Carlos Giol, Barcelona, Obelisco, 2012.