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Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Author : M. Granovskaya
Commentator for International Affairs
THERE IS a widely spreading opinion that we are living
in a post-secular society. This is true: religion is gradually
restoring its former authority which can be described as
one of the main trends of social development. Two cen-
turies of secularization have been replaced with the
growth of religious feelings in the world very much dis-
appointed with the ideas promoted by an absolutely secu-
lar society. Religion has become one of the main factors
and instruments of world politics.
In the historical context, the Peace of Westphalia of 1648,
the official starting point of the contemporary system of international relations, also marked
the beginning of the age of secularization. From that time on, religion was gradually pulling out
of political activities and was gradually losing its authority.
The French Revolution of 1789 marked the highest point of secularism in Europe; it had in-
creased the alienation of the crown from the altar which later spread across Europe. In the Treaty
of Westphalia, the term "secularization" was applied to Church property; later, this phenomenon
started gradually changing European culture and political life by extolling human Reason and
alienating God from man.
Today, philosophy and sociology can offer a great number of interpretations of secularization,
one of them being a statement of its contradictory nature. In his Secular Age philosopher Charles
Taylor has offered the most balanced interpretation of it: "A secular age is one in which the
eclipse of all goals beyond human flourishing becomes conceivable."
Secularism was gradually spreading across the world reaching its peak in the mid-twentieth cen-
tury; it seemingly pushed aside all religious and ethnic distinctions to become one of the main
characteristics of the epoch of modernity.
In recent years, more and more scholars have been writing that religion is returning to public
and political life.
American sociologist Peter Berger has written: "Modernization necessarily leads to a decline of
religion, both in society and in the minds of individuals, and it is precisely this key idea that has
turned to be wrong.... The world today is passionately religious."
The above suggests that world politics has learned to take the religious factor into account; today,
we should move cautiously when dealing with the ideas of identity and ethnicity. At the same
time, not infrequently religious hues are added to purely political conflicts.
The highly contradictory and unificatory nature of globalization puts the concepts of identity,
ethnic affiliation and religious conflict into anew context.
The Phenomenon of Post-Secularism: Religion and Politics in
Contemporary Society