Religion in Interesting Times: Contesting Form, Function, and Future

Abstract

Religion in our world is not just a contested category, it is also one which does political work, having implications for the distribution of power in society. Classifying social action and symbols as religion or as something else, above all culture or spirituality, has political implications and is used to carry out political struggles. Starting from two concrete contemporary examples drawn from the Canadian context having to do with smudging and the crucifix, the article argues that the historical form that religion has taken functioned in earlier modern centuries as a way of favourably distributing power to religion’s carriers; but that with the progressive development of secular forms of power, religion has progressively been moving towards become a form that is mostly neutral in terms of social power distribution but can also be a source of power loss, these through interrelated processes of privatization, pluralization, and voluntarization. In current circumstances, therefore, in order for what is or was religious form to preserve or regain its erstwhile function for privileged power distribution, one sees attempts in various instances to dissolve religion into other categories and forms; here the prime instances are (national) culture and (instrumental) spirituality. If this process continues and counter-movements do not succeed, then this points to the progressive deinstitutionalisation of religion in the future, its dissolution into collective culture and personal spirituality, while maintaining its religious form in smaller local and transnational organizations and movements.