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Summary
Summary
How can one explain the resurgence of religion, even in a western context of rationality, postmodernity and scientific endeavour? The persistence of religious expression has compelled even diehard secularists, or proponents of the 'secularization thesis', to rethink their positions. Jonathan Benthall explains precisely why societies are not bound to embrace western liberal rationality as an evolutionary inevitability. He shows that the opposite is true: that where a secular society represses the religious imagination, the human predisposition to religion will in the end break out in surprising, apparently secular, modes and outlets.Concentrating on what he calls 'para-religion', a kind of secular spirituality that manifests itself within movements and organisations who consider themselves motivated by wholly rational considerations, Benthall uncovers a paradox: despite themselves, they are haunted by the shadow of irrationality. Arguing that humanitarianism, environmentalism, the animal rights movement, popular archaeology and anthropology all have 'religiod' aspects, his startling conclusion is that religion, rather than coming 'back', in fact never went away.
A human universal, the 'religious inclination' underlies the fabric of who we are, and is essential for the healthy functioning of any society.
Author Notes
Jonathan Benthall is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University College London. A former Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Founding Editor of Anthropology Today, his previous books are Disasters, Relief and the Media (1993) and The Charitable Crescent: Politics of Aid in the Muslim World (2003), both published by I.B.Tauris.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Benthall (Univ. College London) offers an anthropological perspective on the persistence of the religious impulse in Western society, which he suggests has emerged in ostensibly secular movements: humanitarianisms, environmentalism/animal liberation, and a number of "humane" academic disciplines (including anthropology). The latter are treated as "religioid movements," and are the subject of three chapters that make up the bulk of the volume. The author has a broad theoretical aim and includes a very lucid discussion of the various fates and meanings of "secularization," offering a 19-point typology of features that characterize, to varying degrees, "religion." Benthall then interprets these features (about which he does not claim to be authoritative) in terms of their salience in creating "religious fields" in Bourdieu's sense, of greater and lesser intensity. The author displays considerable erudition in his exposition of disparate evidence, though some readers may question his assumptions regarding the overall comparability of these cases (he anticipates such charges by positing scalar dimensions of religion). This complements other works that treat the "return" of religion in more conventional terms, including Peter Berger, ed., The Desecularization of the World (1999). Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. C. J. MacKenzie University of Lethbridge
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 Religion and Parareligion | p. 5 |
| 2 The Family Resemblance of Religions | p. 21 |
| 3 The Religious Field and its Shifting Neighbourhood | p. 57 |
| 4 The Humanitarian Movement | p. 87 |
| 5 Animal Rights and Environmentalism | p. 109 |
| 6 Some Humane Disciplines as Religioid Movements | p. 141 |
| 7 Throw Religion Out of the Door: It Flies Back by the Window | p. 169 |
| Envoi | p. 189 |
| Notes and References | p. 193 |
| Index | p. 215 |
| Figure: The Cornucopia Model | p. 63 |
