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Sociology of Religion Facing New Challenges

Srđan Vrcan ; Split

Sažetak

The paper begins pointing out that the contemporary sociology of religion has been searching for the adequate theoretical framework for plausible interpretations of important religious changes occurred since the late seventies in general and more particularly in process of post-communist transition. It is a fact that a series of challenges has emerged which the current sociology of religion has to face primarily owing to some unexpected and unpredicted developments regarding the role and position of religion in the contemporary world. P. Berger was the first one to describe such developments in terms of a shift from the crisis of religion to the crisis of secularity.. Since that time the change has been frequently described as a shift from secularisation to desecularisation of the society, or a shift from decline of the sacred to a return and rebirth of the sacred. Roberston has described the shift basically as a trend of world dimensions to politicisation of religion and religionisation of politics. To such challenges of a very general nature, some more particular challenges have emerged for the sociology of religion having to face the problems of the role of religion in the collapse of the communist system and more intriguing in unexpected turns in the process of post-communist transition. It is argued that the approach combining some basic ideas elaborated by P. Michel with some ideas developed by G. Guizzardi is an appropriate and promising one. The first one insists on emerging in the post-communist transition of a contradictor trend of both disenchantment and re-enchantment of contemporary society with political consequences in one case of locating transitional politics coherently in the sphere of the relative and in the other case of reintroducing politics claiming to operate with the ultimate references. The second one underlines the persistence of an ongoing process of exchange of political goods and capitals for religious goods and capitals and vice-versa primarily for political legitimising purposes. It is aigued that this framework seems to be very appropriate one to interpret the logic of the Pope John IT s visit to Croatia. Then the problem is railed why such an exchange has been engaged by official political actors in general and more particularly in Croatia as well as why it has been welcome by the religious institutions. It is argued that such an exchange has been engaged from political side due basically to latent precariousness and deficiencies of legitimacy of the functioning political regime and in an effort to overcome it somehow. Namely, the political regime and its dominant political strategy are not able to secure necessary ancl stable legitimacy either by strict respect of the democratic procedures or by an acceptable balance between systemic in-puts and the systemic out-puts. Therefore, they have to face a more or less permanent lack of democratic legitimacy and have to search for it in the sphere of social imaginary, symbolism and mythology as well as in religion. At the same religious institution have proved to be not able to stimulate a large scale stable and reckoned with religious re-awakening and upsurge on purely religious and spiritual bases and by strictly religious motivations but have to turn to politics and basically to political motivations.

Ključne riječi

religion; secularization; desecularization; post-communist transition and legitimization

Hrčak ID:

154407

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/154407

Datum izdavanja:

30.6.1999.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 2.117 *