Post-secular society, transnational religious civilizations and legal pluralism

Abstract

Taking for granted a radical criticism of the universalistic value of a post-Protestant understanding of religion and of the nexus between political democracy and secularization, the article aims first at framing the perspective of multicultural jurisdictions within contemporary processes of change of religious pluralism on a transnational scale; secondly at framing that perspective within the intellectual tradition of legal pluralism; and finally at inquiring into the compatibility of the new conceptual constellation ‘post-secular society plus legal pluralism’ with a liberal frame.

Infrasecular geographies

“…Set side by side to desacralized churches, these spaces are visual manifestations of the new modes of horizontal infrasecular coexistence between different forms of belief and unbelief invoked by Rosati (2010) and other social scientists. At the same time, however, they also invite us to reflect on the vertical dimension of infrasecular geographies (whereby 'infra-' equals 'under'); on its depth; on its visibilities and invisibilities.…”

“…Today, however, these dynamics are assuming different traits and proportions. Global mobilities have produced new intertwinings and cohabitations of different cultural groups, as well as new complex forms of coexistence between different religions, forms of non-belief, and indifference to belief (Rosati, 2010). Transformed sites of worship, I argue, are a tangible expression of these social and cultural transformations, of transformed relationships to sacred space, and of shifting perceptions of the sacred itself.…”

“…As opposed to pre-secularism, the postsecular, they argue, builds on democratic freedom of expression and on the coexistence of different forms of belief and non-belief. Unlike the 'post-secular', it does not imply a desecularized society, but one where religious and secular views are called to live together, and to live together differently (Rosati, 2010).…”