ABSTRACT
When we talk about the secular, we’re really also talking about the modern. Ironically, the denial of created order begat beget an era defined by the need to create order: rational order (Taylor 2007). When we talk about the postsecular, though, we are not only talking about the postmodern. We’re also talking about a response to the situation of postmodernity. We are reflecting, of course, on the rejection of rational order. But we’re also reflecting on a particular response to the apparent absence of any rational order, namely, a reawakening to the value of religion. There are two ways of interpreting this reawakening: as a fundamental ‘no’ to nihilism, a recognition of the emptiness of rationality, a leap of faith; or as an enlightened awakening to the use of poetic language and ritual in conveying truths that elude rational description.
