The Paradox of Faith: Religion beyond secularization and de-secularization

In this chapter, I argue that the standard models of “secularization” and “desecularization” are theoretically problematic and empirically questionable. By essentializing religion, both theories adopt a secular perspective. This perspective ignores key sociological, anthropological, and philosophical features that can account for the specificities of different religious traditions (section 1). Moreover, modernity is not a linear process that progressively replaces the religious past with a secular future. Rather, it is a dialectical process oscillating between a dominant secularism (and a variety of denominational subcultures that are positively linked to modernization), on the one hand, and an increasingly visible revival of traditional faiths which resist and seek to transform the secular outlook of global modernity, on the other hand (section 2). Instead of the rather sterile debate in terms of secularization and desecularization, the future will probably consist of a contest of ideas and practices between those traditions that either embrace or challenge secular modernity. This is seen in how religious ideas on reciprocity, mutuality, and relationality are coming to the fore in public discussions on ethics, political economy, and science (section 3).