Detachment, hesitation, indifference: An anthropology of the religious being

Abstract

In this article, the author attempts to retrace his various explorations of religious experience: rituals in Belgium, Catholic parishes in France, and his own experiences of belief. A common theme emerges: a negation that is found in the modes of human presence and that has various expressions. During rituals, it primarily concerns modes of detachment and distraction; during parish meetings, it involves modes of oscillation to deal with the obscurity of religious statements. It also includes a sort of reserve or hesitation, which the author has observed in his own belief. The article hypothesizes that these modes of hesitation originate from the very first act of believing, which may date back 100,000 years. Specifically, the author identifies that moment as the starting point of a mode of human presence that is characterized by presence-absence and indifference. A section of this article consists of a critical debate between the author’s own concepts and the ontological turn in anthropology.