Multiple Postsecularity: Reinstitutionalization of Traditional Religions and the Acute Need for Empirical Research

Abstract

The postsecular turn in Russian society is clearly visible in the reinstitutionalization of the entire range of communicative practices against the backdrop of such transformative processes as modernization, globalization, and mediatization. The visible outcome of these changes is a multiplicity of discourses across various social subsystems concerning the institutional meanings of tradition and innovation. These discourses draw on the semantic and symbolic formations of traditional religions. The difficulty of researching the postsecular mode of reinstitutionalization of traditional religions lies in its novelty and the sharply polarized reception it receives, both among secularized publics and in academic debates. The central theme of this article is a reflection on postsecularity as either a new epistemology or a descriptive framework for sociological research into the current configuration and interrelations of institutional systems—politics, economics, religion, education, law, science, and others. The author treats postsecularity as an epiphenomenon of the transformations of modern society brought about by modernization, globalization, and mediatization. Postsecularity presents itself as a cacophony of secular and religious narratives that intertwine or confront each other in the public sphere. It is marked both by a conflictual dialogue between the secular and the religious and by new sites of convergence and overlap between them—such as the emergence of religious NGOs operating within secular subsystems, and the expanding hybrid media narratives that combine the symbolic codes of different subsystems. Postsecularity does not negate or erase secular reality; it coexists with it. The author also offers a kind of guide to the themes and issues addressed in the articles of this special issue. The article includes the contributors’ own accounts of the sources of their personal inspiration and motivation for researching complex, multiple postsecularity.

Acknowledgments. This article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, grant No 26-18-00579, https://rscf.ru/project/26-18-00579/.