Democracy, Law and Religious Pluralism in Europe: Secularism and Post-Secularism by Ferran Requejo & Camil Ungureanu

Author:Ferran Requejo & Camil Ungureanu [Requejo, Ferran & Ungureanu, Camil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415828338
Google: GmIamwEACAAJ
Goodreads: 17803533
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

The agonistic diversity

From my point of view, the Taylorian position on secularity and secularism creates difficulties for the possibility of forming a political community in and through differences. The reasons have to do with the relationships between the civic virtues and various ontological options, the cross pressures exerted on individuals, and the common ethic needed for democratic life.

First, a striking contrast stands between the civic virtues required of citizens and the promises of fulfillment and beatitude conveyed by various religious and non-religious ontological options (Bernstein 2008). The experience of political modernity and ontological diversity requires disciplined work on the self (self-control) and respect for civic rules in relationships with fellow citizens, in addition to the requirements of participating in social and political life. A neutral political ethic, non-autonomous and incomplete, must be completed by ontological options, some of which are expressed as promises of eternal life or transformation – in the case of religion – or fulfillment – in the case of humanist views. Yet this relationship is more complex than might appear at first glance, and it is not without frictions. Taylor (2005) acknowledges that certain ontological options are borderline cases or rejections of democratic order. Religious anti-modernism (Taylor 2006) and Neo-Nietzschean anti-humanism (Taylor 2005) could be cited in this regard, to name only two. A generalized pacification of options could only lead to an unbearable intensification of the disciplinary order far beyond tolerable bounds for a democratic society. But what Taylor fears above all is a form of materialism, that consists in rejecting the relevance of ontological questions altogether and proposing a world closed in on itself: a closed-world structure. The ethics of diversity and the wealth of ontological options must not make us forget the existence of ontological conflicts about not only the best way to articulate the democratic order, but also its very relevance, as well as its possible negations. Indeed, these conflicts suggest a tragic history of violent and sweeping failures resulting from attempts to realize or deny the promises of political modernity (Taylor 2004). The problem here is that the civic virtues expected of citizens remain entirely dependent on their adoption by the belief systems of individuals.

Second, Taylor examines the cross pressures exerted on individuals today. These pressures come from different sources, religious and non-religious, and many are new requirements put on people in their moral and spiritual quests. One example can be found in the pressure between meeting the needs of everyday and immanent life and seeking out, in the transcendent beyond, the sources of true fulfillment. In A Secular Age (2007a), Taylor also maintains that, in an age of authenticity, individuals do not so much strive to fit into a determined ontological tradition as to forge an original path while drawing from different beliefs or philosophical views. These individuals are more susceptible to cross pressures and do not necessarily seek refuge in a particular tradition. However, singular ethics also constitute resources for strongly affirming a collective identity, that is, unity in and through difference.

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