Rzymski racjonalizm. Teoria piśmienności przeciwko teorii sekularyzacji
Roman Rationalism. Literacy Theory Against Secularization Theory

Summary/Abstract: My article undermines one of the secularization theory theses and a post-secular paradigmbased on it by means of the literacy theory. The studies on literacy and orality allowus to question the thesis that secularization and rationalization of religion consists in thetransition from gesture and ritual based communication to verbal communication. Contraryto this theory of Jürgen Habermas, I claim that lingualisation and codification of the sacredby the medium of writing is a standard way of the historical development of religion, whichseeks to preserve its integrity under the pressure of a historical change, including the secularizationpressure The threat of emergence of contradictory interpretations, competing witheach other, is a direct cause of the canonization of religion, and thus its “rationalization”– this phenomenon is described in the second paragraph. We can illustrate them well on theexample of Catholic Counter-Reformation, which I do in the third paragraph. As a result ofthese considerations, the picture of the literate religion emerges which presents it as a legalsystem regulating forms of life rather than as a collection of symbols expressing pre-rationalbeliefs. Such an approach requires verification of the assumptions of the post-secular project,which I do in the last paragraph.

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