Are these signs of a religious renaissance in notoriously secular Europe - especially among the young? Or are the multitudes at the Holy See more groupies than true believers - a product of the same media hype that feeds our fixation with soccer icons, pop divas and Hollywood stars?
Actually, for different reasons, this is a proposal I have already made. However, what this proposal does is to make the point more as a reaction of the less committed, whereas my proposal is in relation to the very committed, but perhaps in both case the resources of popular culture are a formative influence. In one case by giving icons and in the other means of expression. In one case somewhat with the culture, in the other somewhat countercultural in appearance, while responding to 'deeper' cultural trends?
Both are easy enough to see as aspects of a change in the way that spirituality is expressed.
Some observers believe religion is not in decline at all; it is metamorphosing, becoming more individualistic and less ecclesiastical. The French historian Paul Veyne, for example, speaks of a transition “from religion as a set menu to religion a` la carte, where everyone gets to choose the god or sect they like most.”
I was also pleased to see, in a presentation of Jurgen Habermas's contribution to the debate on 'secularisation' that my own term 'post-secular' gets used.
Both sides of the debate had made the same mistake in viewing secularization as “a kind of zero-sum game,” according to Habermas, where “one side can only win at the expense of the other.” In fact, it was symptomatic of our “postsecular” society, he continued, that religious communities could flourish “in a progressively secularizing environment.”
This observation is not as original as the term “post-secular” would seem to suggest. For many centuries, religions have existed in progressively secular environments. It is Habermas and his new line of thinking that are “post-secular,” rather than the society itself.
The Spread of Faith: Religion, Born Again:Filed in: Europe, religion, trends, culture
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