Post-Secularity and "Modernization with a Soul"

Abstract

This text deals with the research project of the Center for Religious Studies which implicitly encompasses the issue of post-secularity. The issue is actually a dilemma whether post-secular means transformation or continuation of secular neglecting of the transcendent sense of spirituality. Additionally, the meaning of the concept of "religion" which looks for a meaning on "this side" only and which originates from the human spiritual need for understanding of the telos of being is discussed. However, considering the spirit of the time of dominant modernization, which abandons the concept of otherworldliness, institution of religion becomes obsolete, especially when it loses its own spiritual connection with the "other side". In spite of this, it reveals that the idea of spirituality is important and that the crisis of material goods and the need for a sustainable organization in the environment brings us back to the non-material values. In this way, spirituality ceases to be considered as a part of religion, or its alternative. Spirituality may also be a way by which the world and human nature may be viewed. The possibility of confirmation of these assumptions is, however, given only in a partial way, as the explicit questions on spirituality are not posed here.