Facing Religious Ethical Claims in Post-secular Ethics Education: Challenges and Contributions

Abstract

We live in a time that has often been described as post-secular. What is more specifically meant by this is, however, unclear. There are plenty of possible meanings that are highlighted by writers and debaters. Does it mean that a “post-secular era” is an era where religion, having played an obscure role in society, has become increasingly visible in public discussion and in social and political processes? Although the secularization theorist Peter Berger once predicted the death of religion (Berger 1979), might it be that religion has been breathing more intensely in silence, and has thereby been formed and reformed in ways that support what many want to see in the present time, namely not the return of traditional religious expression but rather a growth of different religious traditions and expressions (Taylor 2007)? Are the more visible roles of religion in the public arena, which Berger also acknowledges (Berger 1999), parallel to a deconstruction of traditional religious concepts and a construction of new forms of human needs and the desire to provide a metaphysical or spiritual basis for opinions?