The return of religion: secularization and its discontents

Abstract

That religion has “returned” may already be proven by the existence of a critical essay collection like this one, bringing together scholars from across the humanities who all share a conviction that religion still has something to say in contexts such as the modern university where secular values have held sway for generations. So what is the nature of this return? Arguably, religion has come rather late to the table of identity politics to sit alongside race, class, gender, and sexuality. Some may object to this comparison on the basis that, unlike these other identities, religious identity appears freely chosen—a claim that many contributors to this volume will no doubt take issue with (it is worth noting, for instance, that the vast majority of religiously identified subjects continue to adhere to the religion of their parents). But the real problem with such an approach lies elsewhere, for any move to stabilize the category of religion as an “identity” fails to reckon with the profound disturbance that its “return” has awakened among those who believed that God is Dead. We contributors to this volume should be wary, therefore, of attempting to discipline a subject prone to rupture our efforts at disciplinarity. Moreover, those who speak “in the name of religion” are by no means undivided among themselves. There is no critical consensus regarding the definition of religion as a theoretical term. While some view religion as a form of faith, others speak of an atheological or even atheistic religion.

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