Rzymski racjonalizm. Teoria piśmienności przeciwko teorii sekularyzacji

Abstract

My article undermines one of the secularization theory theses and a post-secular paradigm based on it by means of the literacy theory. The studies on literacy and orality allow us to question the thesis that secularization and rationalization of religion consists in the transition from gesture and ritual based communication to verbal communication. Contrary to this theory of Jürgen Habermas, I claim that lingualisation and codification of the sacred by the medium of writing is a standard way of the historical development of religion, which seeks to preserve its integrity under the pressure of a historical change, including the secularization pressure The threat of emergence of contradictory interpretations, competing with each other, is a direct cause of the canonization of religion, and thus its “rationalization” – this phenomenon is described in the second paragraph. We can illustrate them well on the example of Catholic Counter-Reformation, which I do in the third paragraph. As a result of these considerations, the picture of the literate religion emerges which presents it as a legal system regulating forms of life rather than as a collection of symbols expressing pre-rational beliefs. Such an approach requires verification of the assumptions of the post-secular project, which I do in the last paragraph.