ABSTRACT
A fi nal stage in challenging broadly “religious” associations of the sacred is to separate the sacred from its connotations of the “good”, the “pure”, the “holy”. Of course, in one sense, the sacred is precisely that which people take to be an unquestionable moral claim over their lives. But this is quite diff erent from the suggestion that the sacred is, in reality, a good or constructive presence in social life. As advertisers and marketing professionals well know, the term “sacred” is wrapped in a positive aura, suggesting reverence, mystery, a pure core beyond the imperfection of human society, and as such can be a useful vehicle for advertising anything from museum and art exhibitions to coff ee and bathing products. But when viewed as a particular kind of social and cultural phenomenon, the sacred clearly has far more ambiguous eff ects on our collective life than this positive
aura suggests. Recognizing this becomes a crucial step towards a properly critical study of the sacred.
