The Taming of Irreligion. Essay on the Abuse of the Non-Sacred Idea
Journal Title: Art Inquiry. Recherches sur les arts - Year 2014, Vol 0, Issue
Abstract
I am going to outline the problem of the disintegration of the Latin hierarchical opposition religio/irreligio, showing the taming process of irreligion in the (post)modern culture. This marginal phenomenon – situated by ancient Romans in the domain of negativity – is a reactive cultural trend perceptible only in context. According to modern sociology, irreligion is an attitude towards religion which is not a complete rejection of belief (disbelief), but rather a selective lack of belief – unbelief. How did it come about, is it possible today to consider the hypothesis that the above-mentioned opposition functions as an operational unit, generating contemporary sociomorphism – often unconsciously, within the framework of antagonistic cooperation? In this view irreligion is not only a contamination of the source of the Latin tradition (religio), but it is subject to demarginalization and adopted as a tool of controlling religion – as its negative or its undeserved, unwanted assistant in the realization of its soteriological mission. I would argue that the increasingly numerous and less and less surprising micro-provocations of the irregulares – some of which were presented during the Brussels exhibition of Irreligia/ Irreligion (2001/2002) – although often intended to be iconoclastic (lately in a soft version), have targeted only the idolatrous and imperial dimension of religion. Therefore, they cannot desecrate the revealed faith.
Authors and Affiliations
Kazimierz Piotrowski
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP168260
- DOI -
- Views 92
- Downloads 0
From sign to word in contemporary Polish “HTML literature”. Post-avant-garde heirs of modernist typography
Digital literature or „HTML literature” is one of the more expressive and important trends of the Polish literature of the 21st century. In order to present the main aims and objectives of HTML literature, it is essentia...
Beyond a narrative. Functionless modernist heritage buildings and the aesthetic autonomy of the citizens
The article presents the current situation of some selected modernist heritage architectural objects in the city of Katowice, or rather their ruins. The author discusses their phantom-like status, describes some local ar...
Participation in the Present and the Spacing of Time: On Kawara, Nancy, Levinas
This paper focuses on the close examination of the notions of presence, participation, and time in the conceptual art of On Kawara, in which the rhetorical figure of art works through the spacing of time. In this way, th...
The margins of transcendence in contemporary art
According to the widespread opinion, contemporary art does not seek to express transcendent reality. Questioning this view, the author of the article examines two aspects of the problem. The first concerns the use of Chr...
The Contemporary Dilemmas of Narcissus and Pygmalion. A Study of the Aesthetics of Life.
This article presents two characters from the Greek mythology: Narcissus and Pygmalion. They are two different symbols of human destiny, who share a hyperactive attitude towards unreality/fiction. In their case, what exi...