In later parts, I will look at the present condition from different angles, however for now I wish to discuss the history behind what I will call ‘traditionalism’. Traditionalism takes a stand against secularisation because it wants to prevent corruption of the tradition and loss of the tradition’s stature. In other words, traditionalism does have good intentions; and this needs to be acknowledged upfront. My defense of secularisation rests not on dismantling traditionalism but arguing that secularisation attains the goals of traditionalism as well as does something more: secularisation creates more avenues for tradition to grow beyond its preservation.
The greatest problem with traditionalism is that it cannot achieve its intended goals. In order to protect tradition’s freedom, traditionalism requires its believers to enter the political realm and play the game of political power. This inevitably leads to disastrous outcomes. Two examples are: [1] the corruption of tradition’s goals by enforcing the tradition upon everyone, leaving it open to later overthrowing and [2] the subjugation of tradition to the game of political power. Whenever a religious tradition enters the political realm as a political power, it becomes subject to the political realm. It is important to read the last sentence as a critique of religion as a political force. Secularisation in the strictest sense is the separation of religion from the political realm as a political power. Secularisation is not the absolute separation of religion from the political realm, as two completely unrelated realms of participation. In other words, secularisation is a rejection of all religious traditions as unified political parties, allowing people to be religious and political participants without needing to be a particular kind of one to be another (i.e. without needing one to be of a particular political party in order to participate in a particular religious tradition and vice versa).
The greatest benefit of secularisation is that one is free to participate in both the political and religious spheres without one interfering with the other. Closely related to this is that each sphere can influence the other but to the extent that one is free to ‘pick the battles’. In short, one can preserve one’s tradition better if one’s tradition is not tied into the rise and fall of political power. This is strength that secularisation provides over traditionalism. While this post is largely a proof-of-concept demonstration, my following posts will analyse details secularisation entails.
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