TY - JOUR

T1 - What are we talking about when we talk about the (post)secular? Recentering mutual participation and a commitment to communicability in scholarly discussions of contemporary religions

AU - Robinson, Matthew Ryan

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Dialog published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2023/3/1

Y1 - 2023/3/1

N2 - What are we talking about when we talk about the postsecular? This article looks at the ways articulations of the secular often presuppose the presence – not the absence – of religion and religious plurality. This can be observed even in the work of early theorists of secularism as well as of the first sociologists who observed secularizing tendencies in society and sought to conduct social-scientific inquiry in a way that aimed to be analytically agnostic. At the same time, the return or renewed visibility of religion does not imply a decrease in individualization of religious expression, the disappearance of secularist attitudes, or that challenges of negotiating religious pluralism have been overcome. This more complicated orientation toward relating secularity and religious pluralism shifts the focus away from debates over the truth or rationality of religious beliefs and practices to the need for mutual, voluntary, open, and ongoing communication among them. On the one hand, a commitment is necessary to the creation and maintenance of meaningful participation opportunities in the self-presentation of religious self-understandings in relation to issues of common concern (the mutuality requirement); on the other hand, a steadfast commitment is needed from religious persons and groups themselves to persistent participation in presentation of one's own views or those of one's constituencies in ways that are clear and accessible to all other participants (the voluntariness requirement).

AB - What are we talking about when we talk about the postsecular? This article looks at the ways articulations of the secular often presuppose the presence – not the absence – of religion and religious plurality. This can be observed even in the work of early theorists of secularism as well as of the first sociologists who observed secularizing tendencies in society and sought to conduct social-scientific inquiry in a way that aimed to be analytically agnostic. At the same time, the return or renewed visibility of religion does not imply a decrease in individualization of religious expression, the disappearance of secularist attitudes, or that challenges of negotiating religious pluralism have been overcome. This more complicated orientation toward relating secularity and religious pluralism shifts the focus away from debates over the truth or rationality of religious beliefs and practices to the need for mutual, voluntary, open, and ongoing communication among them. On the one hand, a commitment is necessary to the creation and maintenance of meaningful participation opportunities in the self-presentation of religious self-understandings in relation to issues of common concern (the mutuality requirement); on the other hand, a steadfast commitment is needed from religious persons and groups themselves to persistent participation in presentation of one's own views or those of one's constituencies in ways that are clear and accessible to all other participants (the voluntariness requirement).

KW - Habermas

KW - intercultural

KW - pluralism

KW - postsecular

KW - Schleiermacher

KW - secular

KW - social resilience

KW - Theology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150186545&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/dial.12785

DO - 10.1111/dial.12785

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85150186545

VL - 62

SP - 51

EP - 65

JO - Dialog

JF - Dialog

SN - 0012-2033

IS - 1

ER -