“Post-secular” – Valid Concept or Self-deception?

Abstract

At the beginning of the paper, the question is raised whether conception of the post-secular proposed by J. Habermas justified, then through an appeal to the classics of the theory of secularization (P. Berger) shows the fundamental role of the sci­entific worldview for the existence of a secular situation and examines four cases illustrating the process of transformation of the religious worldview under the influence of scientific. The first case is the transformation of esotericism in the XIX century and the emergence of occultism. The thesis about the synthetic nature of occultism is proved by referring to the works of E. Levy, E. Blavatsky, R. Steiner, A. Crowley, R. Guenon. The second case is the emergence of scien­tific apologetics in contemporary Christianity. The paper proves that most of the debates about the place of religion in modern society (problems of biological sex, reproductive technologies, euthanasia, environmental crisis, etc.) are di­rectly caused by perception of science as ultimate truth. The third case is the for­mation of psychology and psychiatry as alternative forms of work with the inner world of a person. On the example of the works of J.-M. Charcot, S. Freud and K.G. Jung illustrates the desire of psychology to replace religion. To examine the problem more deeply the situation of the dialog of psychiatry and modern Russian Orthodoxy is considered, this process demonstrates the eclecticism of the worldview of believers, in which the dominance of scientific discourse is clearly traced. The last considered case is the situation of COVID-19 pandemic. It is concluded that each of the considered cases illustrates the opposition of reli­gion and science and it is hardly possible to talk about any full-fledged return of the religious worldview until each of these cases is convincingly explained from the point of post-secular worldview.