A chain of learning about religion and belief

Many have observed a return of religion and belief to the public sphere (see, for example, Dinham et al, 2009; Micklethwaite and Wooldridge, 2009). As a key voice in this debate, Habermas (2005: 26) notes ‘a postsecular self-understanding of society as a whole in which the vigorous continuation of religion in a continually secularizing environment must be reckoned with’. His assertion relies on several elements: the continued expansion of religion globally and its power to shape culture and politics, as well as individual behaviour; the inherent discrimination of a one-size-fits-all secular vision of the public sphere that requires religious citizens to modify their religious identity; and the struggle of liberal democracies to challenge the materialism of global capitalism (Habermas, 2005). Liberal democracies, says Habermas, need to rediscover the wisdom, discernment and discipline that are linked with ‘pre-political’ religious sources because they are independent and self-generating, beyond the influence of both state and market.

With or without an interest in such wisdoms, migration and globalisation ensure the increasing diversity of religion and belief everywhere anyway, and the challenges of such encounters are unavoidable. While critics have argued that the ubiquitous nature of the term ‘post-secular’ risks its devaluation (Beckford, 2012), it nevertheless captures the persisting, pervasive, fluid and uncertain nature of religion and belief in public space. The renewed visibility of a religiously plural public sphere, characterised by more blurred and fluid encounters, is one of the hallmarks of the current policymaking and practice context.

At the same time, Hervieu-Leger argues that for religion to be understood in the modern world, there must be a connection to its deep roots in traditions and times in which it was not defined as irrelevant. This leads her to the concept of a ‘chain of memory’ by which individual believers become members of a community linking past, present and future (Hervieu-Leger, 2000). She also argues that modern secular societies in the West have neither fully outgrown nor found secular substitutes for religious traditions. Modern societies have become ‘amnesiacs’, she thinks, forgetting the chain of memory that binds them to their religious pasts and brings them to their presents.