The category of the religious: The Blindspot of contemporary media theory?

Abstract

This essay addresses the prospects of an approach to contemporary theory‐building which would take account of the realms of meaning, ontology and cultural practice traditionally in the province of religion. Beginning with an assessment of the germinal social theory of Durkheim, Weber and Marx, the investigation develops an interpretation of contemporary social and cultural life which conceives of “the religious” as radically located within “the secular.” Such a situation necessarily implicates some received understandings, particularly in the area of secularization and the larger Enlightenment project. Implications for media theory and research are explored, along with a set of implications for public and democratic discourse.