On the path towards "New Enlightenment": representations on the post-secular in modern scientific discourse

Abstract

The subject of this research is the interpretation of the phenomenon of post-secularism in modern scientific discourse (the late XX – early XXI centuries). The object of this research is post-secularism as a phenomenon of modernity. Research methodology leans on the comparative and descriptive analysis. J. Habermas, introducing the concept of post-secular, noted that the process of secularization in the West is not only dialectical, but also incomplete; and secularization itself has strayed from the "right path" of its development. This launched the discussion on the post-secular. The interpretation of the post-secular can still be polar or mutually exclusive, requiring certain systematization of views, which is presented in this article. The conclusion is made that modern scientific discourse contains different interpretations of the post-secular. The first implies rejection of the secular, accompanied by revival of the religious, infiltration of religion into the sphere of active social relations, realization of the erroneousness of secularization and correction of these errors; in this sense, the concept of desecularization is rather appropriate. The second interpretation of post-secularism is counter-secularization: the process of desecularization intensified by revanchist sentiments of the reviving religiosity. Such post-secularism, focuses non on the correction of errors, but full dismantling of everything secular, which entails natural tension on all levels. Counter-secularization is not focused on dialogue and is potentially dangerous for its fundamentalist continuation. The third interpretation views post-secularism as the natural, self-generated continuation and/or development of secularism; the so-called “New Enlightenment”, which due to its unreligious religiosity and extreme relativism devalues the reviving sacred, originating either its transformation from the traditional religiosity to somewhat ecumenical, or the emergence of something new, in essence, pseudo-transcendent, which would be the final victory of the secular. Actualization of the possibility of choice and the choice itself between transcendence and pseudo-transcendence is the essence of the phenomenon of post-secularism.