ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting aspects of s≠f⁄ literature is the way in which s≠f⁄s have consistently throughout time created and recreated sacred identities from their religious convictions. To understand s≠f⁄ creations of sacred identities and how it is connected to their inner transcendental spiritual experience, one needs to move beyond Durkheimian functionalist and Marxist structuralist interpretations of identities. Religious beliefs are not merely a universal single dominant set of ideas and values that have been conceived to maintain the cohesion of a social system. Critics of the functionalist and Marxist schools of thought implement a dominant class perspective which is equally insufficient to the understanding of the impact of sacred identities that are rooted in religious ideologies. For instance, J.G. Merquior assumes that ideology is a one-way process and that ideologies are articulated by a self-conscious dominant class that works in a system of consent and negotiation with the masses.1 This perspective breaks away from the belief that all ideologies are essentially monolithic and it has little to do with faith or beliefs, but more to do with consent between the dominant class and the subordinated classes.
